Welcome to Key Real Estate's monthly Property Report. We'll look at properties for sale in Rotorua, the Bay of Plenty and across the country. Check out the house price highlights below!
New Zealand's median house price continued to show strong annual growth. While we did not see a new record median set, annual increases indicate continued support for a buoyant property market.
New Zealand's median house price rose to $820,000, up from $620,000 or 32.3% year-on-year. Bay of Plenty's median price is now $820,000, matching the national median, also up 32.3% annually. The Rotorua District's median house price was $590,000 in May, up a considerable 22.9% compared to May 2020.
Monthly prices also showed a modest increase across the country, up 1.9%. However, there was weakness in regions excluding Auckland, with prices down 1.1%. The Rotorua District also slipped 3.3% when compared to REINZ's revised April 2021 median price. Whether this resulted from the new LVR restrictions or part of the general slow down at this time of the year remains to be seen. Noting our previous Property Report highlighted a modest drop in monthly house prices.
One last statistic for May was that there were less than 15,000 properties for sale across the country, the second-lowest inventory level since REINZ began collecting records.
Wendy Alexander, Acting Chief Executive at REINZ, says: "Whilst we haven't seen as many record median prices in May as we've seen in the past few months, there is no denying that New Zealand's residential property market is still holding strong. Median prices haven't significantly eased yet as many had hoped would be the case, and things are certainly not getting any more affordable for first time buyers."
Neville Falconer, REINZ Regional Director, commented: "Investor activity in the region has remained rather steady over the last few months, indicating that the newly imposed government restrictions are not yet having the intended effect. New listings for the region are down -11.7% annually, contributing to the -46.9% drop in available inventory and increasing the competition for available properties. Sales of million dollar plus properties have increased significantly, up from 8.6% in May last year to 29.9% this May, showing the underlying strength in the market."
We hope you enjoyed this month's Property Report. If you haven't heard, we have introduced property management into our range of services. Give us a call if you want to talk about how our services can add value to your property. Finally, as always, check out our properties for sale!