Auckland’s average asking price on Realestate.co.nz has dropped below $1 million for the first time in six years, although its median sale price has been there for some time.
The website’s average asking price for the city in September was $993,562, about a quarter of a million dollars below the January 2022 peak of $1.274m.
It means the asking price is coming closer to what might be achievable – Real Estate Institute data put the median sales price for the city in August at $950,000, the same as a year earlier.
Realestate.co.nz spokesperson Vanessa Williams said the asking price was usually more than the sale price.
“The average asking price, as we all know, we come to the market hoping that we will get a premium price for our product as a vendor so we have years and years’ worth of data to suggest that that average asking price typically, depending on which market but give or take, is about 15 to 20 percent above the actual sale price of the … I’m just sort of generalising there but usually the average asking price sits above the selling price just because as I said people wanting to come to the market hoping that in that first couple of weeks they’re going to get a premium price for their property.”
She said the drop signalled that there could be more urgency among people listing now, to get their properties sold before the election. “Vendors are coming to the market being very realistic with what they are asking for their properties to get the deal done.”
Williams said Auckland buyers had a lot of choice. There were 3500 new listings on the market in September, 7.7 percent more than a year earlier. The total amount of stock available in Auckland increased 13.8 percent to 13,958 homes.
Across the country, the available stock rose 10.7 percent year-on-year in September, to 34,001. Only Southland had fewer properties for sale than a year earlier.
Nelson and Bays’ average asking price dipped below $800,000 for the first time in five years in September, to an average $791,917. Wairarapa recorded the largest annual decline of all the regions, down 9.2 percent to $667,375.
The national average asking price remained steady in September at $855,245, down just 0.2 percent year-on-year.
Four regions bucked the trend and recorded record average asking price highs for the month of September. Canterbury’s average asking price lifted 1.3 percent year-on-year to $736,585. Southland’s average lifted 5.9 percent to $593,723. Central Otago’s lifted 4.6 percent to $1.586m and the West Coast’s average increased 0.8 percent to $514,013.