Wellington house prices drop, threat of job cuts unclear
Monday, 5 February 2024
Average property asking prices in Wellington fell last month but the market is heating up over the hill, with Wairarapa sellers in the hot seat, according to realestate.co.nz.
The start of 2024 has seen renewed confidence in the national property market, with sellers eager to list, buyers actively searching, and prices rising.
Wairarapa was among several regions which contributed to average asking price upswings, taking the national average to $887,165 in January, new data from realestate.co.nz shows.
Homes in the region sold for an average of $794,394 last month, up 5.2% from $754,826 in January last year. A massive increase in new listings saw 110 properties added, taking the total stock to 384 for the month of January.
While Wellington also saw an increase in new listings in line with the national average of 10%, they were quickly snapped up which meant the total number of homes for sale ‒ 1315 ‒ was still 20% lower year-on-year compared to the previous January.
It would take 12 weeks to sell the total number of properties for sale in the region in January, down from a long-term average of 15 weeks and even lower than the national 22-week average.
Average asking prices also dropped, down 1.5% from $867,465 in January 2023 to $854,155 last month.
Spokesperson for realestate.co.nz Vanessa Williams said the varying results between the metropolitan areas and regions was being felt across the country.
“If there’s a trend typically the major centres see it first but it’s actually been the other way around. Where we are starting to see growth, especially in average asking prices, it’s actually the regions leading the charge.”
Williams said Wairarapa sellers especially were “in the hot seat”.
“It’s good to see sellers come back into the market in the Wellington region, and in Wairarapa. There was a massive jump in new listings coming into Wairarapa so obviously a lot more confidence.”
She said while Wellington had seen a slight drop, there had still been growth compared to pre-Covid.
The Wellington marked peaked about a $1 million in January 2021, and where people had seen a drop it was likely the market “auto-correcting”, she said.
Williams was unsure if the threat of looming job cuts proposed for the public service was having an impact on Wellington’s market, and she was also waiting to see the finer detail of how new legislation relating to investors would play out.
“There is a lot of talk about what is going to happen with Government and government jobs.”
Last year there had been a lot of uncertainty in the market, with people nervous about interest rates and the outcome of the election.
Williams said 2023 was a year where both buyers and sellers “sat on their hands” and it was really only people that had to transact that did, with “record low months right across New Zealand, right across the year”.
This had led to “some built up supply and demand”, but it appeared market confidence was back with the January data showing “2024 has come out the blocks to come out hot”.
Following a quiet December, realestate.co.nz data highlighted a 52.2% surge in new listings nationally, far exceeding the average 23.7% increase typically observed over the past five years between December and January.
The new listings were generating a lot of interest too. In Wellington, searches per listing were up 37.1% compared to January last year and engagements were up 87.6%.
In Wairarapa, searches per listing were up 6.7% compared to the previous year and engagements were up 47.1%.
While it would take 28 weeks to clear Wairarapa’s housing stock, it was down considerably from the long-term average of 54 weeks.
“The mood of the market is warming,” Williams said.