Welcome to this months market wrap on North Shore property.
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I had 4 fantastic days in sunny (yep sunny) Taupo last weekend coaching my U10 rugby team at the Taupo Rugby Festival, so I didn’t get a chance to put this monthly report together.
Mostly though there is nothing new that hasn’t been reported over and over again, therefore I’m going to give you a very quick report on the key indicators of our property market here on the North Shore. Then I’ve included a little bit about the changes to the Overseas Investment Act or the “Foreign Buyer Ban” which is coming into force on 22 October, and the effect that this is, or isn’t going to have – on property prices anyway.
In This Week’s Market Wrap
– Monthly Wrap – August Results
– Auction clearance rates
– Foreign Buyer Ban
– Off Market & Coming Soon
Market Performance
Volume of Sales – More of the same, down 3% on the Shore and 6% across Auckland. Up around the country though as the regions continue to power on.
Median Prices – Well I’ve always tried to be pretty blunt with these reports, and whilst prices are still pretty flat across Auckland – on the North Shore we can see a pretty clear downward trend over the past 12 months. The latest median of just $915,000 for August when compared to a record month of $1,071,000 last year, probably doesn’t help, but I don’t think there’s any arguing prices have slipped slightly. I wouldn’t say duck and cover though it’s not the end of the world, price have slipped from extremely high to very high. The world isn’t going to end.
Here’s some interesting data though, upon investigating different price brackets (using the REINZ’s fun new tools) we can clearly see by the graphs below, that the sub $1.5m bracket is at fault for this downward trend, as the $1.5m plus properties appear to be trucking along nicely.
This first graph is the median prices of North Shore Properties sold under $1.5 from August 2017 to August 2018.
This second graph is the median prices of North Shore Properties sold over $1.5 from August 2017 to August 2018.
To be honest I’m not sure if I can do this with this data, but this was my gut feel anyway based on what I’m seeing, so I wanted to see if the data supported it – and it certainly seems to.
Days on Market – 43 days here on the Shore, 39 days this time last year, 31 days in 2016. Yep it’s taking a little longer, and it’s still a little tougher. But it’s not that bad!
Stock Availability
After hovering in the mid 1400’s for weeks, clearing the Spring stock has come to play, with the number of properties available now back up to 1630 on the North Shore this morning.
More stock means more competition for vendors and more choice for buyers. Which means Vendors, getting your pricing and presentation right is absolutely paramount.
Auctions
Harcourts called 29 Auctions last week selling 10, giving us a clearance rate of 34% which as those that read this report regularly, will know is pretty low for us. B&T called 31 and sold 6! This happens from time to time and we’ve certainly had our shocker weeks as well. With the amount of stock on the market it’s no surprises clearance rate will take a bit of a hammering – but the 4 week average of 43% combined is still quite normal.
Overseas Investment Act Changes
What will the changes to Overseas buyers mean to the real estate industry?
Remember Chinese Buyers have been out of the market for some time, so in comparison to how strong they once were it’s fair to say the market is already operating with relatively normal levels of local interest. So we can’t see any drastic change being achieved by these changes as they are essentially, too little too late, yet a great topic for the politicians.
The reality is that the day to day business of real estate will continue – and the great news is that these new changes in legislation give great security and surety to our sellers. Will it affect volume and price? Possibly – but in a country where we are consistently short on stock for purchasers and where normality in seasonal selling cycles seems to have returned – life will go on – the market is the market is the market.
And I’m sorry but those young and first home buyers hoping for a correction to increase housing affordability – this just isn’t going to do it.
Coming Soon
We’ve been busy, and we have plenty of new listings in the pipeline and coming soon, be sure to check out our new listings below, our website for current listings, or get in touch about anything detailed below that we have coming soon.
Mairangi Bay – A luxury 5 bedroom home of over 400sqm of solid masonry construction, right in the heart of Mairangi Bay village.
Forrest Hill – Do Up Opportunity in the $800’s available now!
Browns Bay – A brand new 400sqm 6 bedroom home (1 weeks)
Milford – A gorgeous 1920’s character family home with seaviews on a large section (4 weeks)
Takapuna – A sunny semi-detached townhouse
Forrest Hill – An entry level 3 bedroom home
Takapuna – Mixed Use Opportunity, great home or office
Campbells Bay – Brand new townhouses off the plans
Sunnynook – A brand new family home on a freehold site
Sunnynook – A nicely renovated 3 bedroom home
That’s it from me, if you have any questions as always just give me a call, otherwise enjoy your Sunday!!
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