Auckland’s median house price soared $100k in February

By in New Zealand Economy

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s promise to ‘fix’ housing affordability has taken another hit with the nation’s median house price rising another $50,000 in February, with Auckland’s surging by $100,000, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ).

Price growth was strong across the nation, as summarised in the below table:

New Zealand property prices are booming from coast-to-coast, North Island and South.

Price growth has gone vertical:

NZ house price growth has gone vertical.

Sales volumes are also booming, up 18.8% year-on-year nationally and by 35.9% in Auckland:

Sales volumes are up across most markets in New Zealand.

Finally, sales are being dominated by higher-end properties, whereas sales of cheaper properties have fallen sharply:

Premium property sales are booming in New Zealand.

REINZ CEO Bindi Norwell attributed some of the turbo-charged growth to home buyers rushing in before loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions came into place in March:

“The unrelenting pace of property sales continued in February, with a 14.6% uplift on sales volumes compared to the same time last year; the highest number of properties sold for the month of February in 14 years”…

“It’s highly likely that some of this uplift can be attributed to both investors and owner-occupiers looking to purchase ahead of the LVR restrictions coming back into effect in March and the slight uplift in listings we’ve seen over the last couple of months”.

The rate of growth should obviously slow from here. It can’t get much faster than 5.6% month-on-month and 27.3% year-on-year.

Unconventional Economist
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