Spring and summer usually bring an uplift in real estate market activity, however this has been slightly delayed this year due to the interruptions of COVID restrictions across several parts of the country. There is still a consistent theme of strong prices and low stock across the main centres. Below we outline the latest market stats and activity from across our regions.
Bay of Plenty
The Bay of Plenty region is experiencing a 23.9% increase to median house prices year-on-year, with October reaching a record new high of $900,000. Rotorua and Tauranga also reached record new price highs for their individual districts.
Tauranga (including Oropi, Ohauiti and Pyes Pa suburbs) had 150 sales in the month of October, with the median price reaching $970,000. This is a 25% increase on the median price from October 2020 ($775,000). The median days to sell is currently 34, one day less than October 2020.
Rotorua had 92 sales in October, with the median price reaching a high of $687,500. This is up 5% from just one month prior ($651,400 in September 2021) and the median days to sell currently sits at 32, 7 days less than the same time last year.
Hamilton
Hamilton had 300 sales during October, despite the area going into a second lockdown for the larger part of the month. Dinsdale had the highest amount of sales per suburb at 27, closely followed by Flagstaff at 26, then Hamilton East at 25 sales. Jen Baird, REINZ Chief Executive, commented in a recent article published by nzherald.co.nz* that real estate professionals have still been able to conduct business over the recent lockdowns due to some changes to restrictions:
‘Lockdown restrictions are having a reduced impact. Real estate professionals have the resources to conduct business remotely and customers and clients have the confidence to move forward to make decisions. Steps by the Government, as advocated for by REINZ on behalf of members, to enable more private property viewings at alert level 3 have helped, especially in areas longest affected by tighter lockdown. Less stringent restrictions equate to more activity."
Hamilton achieved a median sale price of $825,500, a 23.3% increase from October 2020 ($669,500). Of the 300 sales in October 2021, 53% of these were between $800,000 - $2,000,000.
Whangarei
Whangarei has seen a very noticeable shortage of stock, with only 100 properties sold in October this year. The impact this shortage has on sales prices is evident, with the city reaching a new median price of $795,000, a massive 30% increase on October 2020 ($604,500).
Kamo had the highest amount of sales per suburb at 21, followed by Onerahi at 9 then Kensington with 6. With restrictions easing coming into Christmas and Aucklanders able to escape north, its anticipated competition for stock in Whangarei could increase and further impact sale prices, although more listings may become available heading into the summer months.
Sources:
https://reinz.co.nz/residential-October-2021
Sales are based on residential statistics only and are sourced from reinz.co.nz
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