Property prices: Regions hit record highs, Auckland lifts again

A strong performance from the regions has seen July's national average asking price for a home increase.

RealEstate.co.nz has released its monthly figures, showing the highest asking prices in Taranaki, Otago, Southland and Hawke's Bay since records began in 2007.

That's helped the national average asking price to jump to $669,941 - a 1.6 percent increase on June, despite a 2.8 percent fall in the number of new property listings in the last year.

For Taranaki, the average asking price was $475,425 in July, up 11.6 percent since June. However, the number of new listings was down 23 percent in the region since July 2018.

"For two months in a row, new listings have been scarce in the Taranaki region. It was a similar picture in June and July last year, but listings are even fewer this year," said spokesperson Vanessa Taylor.

It's a similar situation in Otago, with an average asking price of $454,727 in July, up 11.2 percent since June. Southland saw a 6.7 percent jump to $373,897.

The Hawke's Bay also saw an interesting situation in July, with not only a record high average asking price, but record low new listings and number of total houses for sale.

Taylor described it as a "classic supply and demand situation".

The asking price was $579,647 in July, up 6.8 percent on June, the number of new listings was 212, down 7.8 percent since last year, and the total number of homes for sale was 374, down 2.9 percent on July 2018.

"This is a very tight market, but the upside is that more than half of the homes on the market in July were fresh listings for buyers to consider," Taylor said.

July's average asking prices.
July's average asking prices. Photo credit: RealEstate.co.nz

Outside of those four regions, Auckland also saw a lift of 1.5 percent since June to an average asking price of $928,152.

"We are a long way from the peak of the heated property market when it was all about the Auckland region," Taylor said.

"However, we can't ignore the fact that the Auckland region is our biggest market and with the average asking price lifting for the second month in a row, we'll be watching with interest to see what happens during the rest of this quarter.

"[July's average asking price is] still some way off the region's 2019 peak average asking price of $960,715 in February, which is traditionally an active property month."

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