House prices gain momentum as one region re-enters the $1m club

Wednesday, 27 November 2024

The national average asking price for a property in October was $848,900, according to Trade Me Property.

All but one region had an increase in the average asking price between September and October.

This saw one region in particular re-enter the $1 million club.

New Zealand’s largest city has inched back into the $1 million club after the average house price increased by $42,000.

According to Trade Me Property the national average asking price for a property in October was $848,900, up 3.1% from September and the strongest month-on-month growth in close to three years.

Year-on-year prices remained down 1.4%.

Auckland saw a comeback in October with an average asking price of $1,038,550, up 4.2% or more than $42,000.

This was a significant increase since August when the average asking price dropped below $1m for the first time in four years.

Auckland City and North Shore City were partly responsible for the month-on-month growth, up 7.8% to $1,217,300 and 5.1% to $1,235,300 respectively.

Trade Me Property customer director Gavin Lloyd said that was now two straight months of increasing prices for Tāmaki Makaurau.

“Which will be reassuring to those selling, after five consecutive months of declining prices for the region,” he said.

“It’s positive to see property prices continue to trend up across much of the country off the back of recent changes to the OCR and as we head into summer when we would typically expect to see some momentum.”

All but one of the 15 regions Trade Me Property monitors showed growth in the average asking price between September and October.

Excluding Auckland, the top three regions with the biggest increases across the month include the West Coast up 6.3 %, Southland up 4.6% and Northland up 3.1%.

Gisborne was the only region where the average asking price fell month-on-month, down 1.8% to $603,650. The decline in October marked the fifth consecutive month of falling prices for Tairāwhiti.

Meanwhile, Lloyd said both supply and demand were up around 9% month-on-month.

“We saw supply and demand start to taper off over the winter months but bounce back as we moved into spring. Compared to last year both remain strong with supply up 26% on October 2023 and demand up 20%.”

Properties were also selling quicker than in previous months with the median time for a property to be listed on site sitting at 59, down from 70 in September and just three days longer than October 2023.

'Homes selling quicker is a good sign for our property market, particularly when it coincides with increasing demand as we have seen over the past four months,” Lloyd said.