The REINZ has released its house price data for November, which revealed that Auckland’s median house price retraced by 2.0% to $851,944 to be up by 11.4% year-on-year, whereas prices outside of Auckland hit a record high, jumping by 4% to $415,000 to be up 10.7% year-on-year:
According to the REINZ:
10 of 12 regions in New Zealand hit new record high median sale prices in November 2016, with the national median price also reaching a new record median of $520,000, and all but two regions showed double-digit percentage growth.
Only Auckland and Central Otago Lakes did not post new record median prices. Auckland eased back from a record in October, and Central Otago Lakes median continued to ease following its rapid price increase earlier in the year.
However, sales volumes have fallen sharply across new Zealand, suggesting “shrinkflation” is occurring across the pond as well:
And this has been driven by a slump in for sale listings:
The number of properties available for sale across all regions in New Zealand fell 5,722 (-19%) between November 2015 and November 2016. Wellington has the fewest properties for sale with nine weeks of supply, closely followed by Hawke’s Bay with under 11 weeks supply. Across the country there is just under four months of supply, with all regions seeing a decline in availability between November 2015 and November 2016.
Moreover, the decline in sales volumes has been most prevalent at the “affordable” price points, suggesting first home buyers are having an especially difficult time:
