Market update – November 2020

Data Shows Highest Number of Properties Sold in NZ in 13 Years – Summary of REINZ report

The number of residential properties sold in November across New Zealand increased by 29.6% from the same time last year.

In Auckland, the number of properties sold in November increased by 53.9% year-on-year. In addition to Auckland, some regions saw a large increase in annual sales volumes during November, annual sales volume for Nelson increased by 25.8% (from 93 to 117 – 24 more houses) – the highest for the month of November in 18 years.

‘The last time we saw a similar level of sales volumes was back in March 2007, before the national recession and Global Financial Crisis started impacting New Zealand’s property market.’

Bindi Norwell – REINZ CEO

“November saw more than half (10 out of 16) of the regions across the country with double-digit percentage increases in annual sales volumes showing how buoyant the market is. Part of this is likely to be attributed to people wanting to purchase property ahead of Christmas, partly due to the
Reserve Bank announcing in early November that it would undertake a consultation in December to re-introduce LVRs earlier than planned, but also due to this underlying fear that prices might increase even further in the coming months,” Says Bindi Norwell, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

MORE THAN A QUARTER OF ALL PROPERTIES SOLD BY AUCTION IN NOVEMBER

November saw 26.9% of all properties sold by auction, with 2,661 properties selling under the hammer – up from 16.8% at the same time last year, when 1,279 properties were sold via auction and up from 22.8% in October this year. This was the highest percentage of auctions the country has seen in 62 months (September 2015).

Median Price

Median house prices across New Zealand increased by 18.5% from $632,000 in November 2019 to a new record median high of $749,000 in November 2020; and up from $725,000 in October this
year – a $24,000 increase. In total 11 regions saw record median prices during November. Tasman was one of them with a 28.0% increase from $605,000 in November last year to $774,400 this November, and Nelson with a 9.8% increase from $610,000 in November last year to $670,000 in November this year.

“Since October 2011, we’ve seen successive annual increases in median house prices and the last 5 months have been double-digit increases. This just isn’t sustainable and with data out earlier this week showing that home ownership is at its lowest level in 70 years, the gap between those that own and those that rent is just going to keep growing unless we can do something to start addressing the supply issue the country has,”

Bindi Norwell, REINZ CEO

Record median prices were reached in the Nelson and Tasman regions in November 2020, up 9.8% and 28.0% respectively from the same time last year. Nelson reached a record median price of $670,000 and Tasman saw a record median price of $774,400.

Sale Volume

Sales volumes were up 25.8% for Nelson (the highest for a November month since 2002) and up 13.0% for Tasman (the highest for a November month since records began).

“Open homes have registered high levels of attendance across all price brackets and properties are selling quick, generally with multiple offers made.”

Bindi Norwell

The total number of properties available for sale nationally decreased by -16.9% in November to 18,319 down from 22,049 in November 2019 – a decrease of 3,730 properties compared to 12 months ago.
Nelson was one of the regions with the largest percentage decrease in total inventory levels, with a decrease of -44.7% from 421 to 233. And Nelson also had its lowest levels of inventory ever with only six weeks inventory available to prospective purchasers highlighting how we desperately need new listings to come onto the market in some parts of the country.

Days to Sell

In November, the median number of days to sell a property nationally decreased 4 days from 33 to 29 when compared to November 2019, the lowest since March 2007. Across the country, 11 regions had a median number of days to sell of less than 30 days – the last time we had at least 11 regions at less than 30 days was in December 2003.

The current Days to Sell of 29 days for our region is less than the 10-year average for November which is 32 days.

(Source – REINZ, Nov 2020)