Asking prices for all Auckland property types now $500k+

Average asking prices for all Auckland property types now $500,000+

In May the door continued to close on buyers trying to enter the Auckland house market with less than $500,000 to spend.

According to the Trade Me Property Price Index’s analysis of new listings for sale over the past three months, for the first time there are no longer any property types or sizes with an average asking price of less than half a million dollars.

Head of Trade Me Property Nigel Jeffries said Auckland continued to surge and was yet to show signs of slowing down. “Buyers have recently been looking at apartments and units as an option for starting on the property ladder, but anyone hoping to find themselves a property investment under $500,000 is going to find it increasingly difficult.”

He said recent attempts at dampening the market had yet to have an impact on asking prices. “Not only are apartment and unit prices growing, but Auckland house sellers’ average asking prices have ticked up $6,850 since April. Asking prices are now just shy of three quarters of a million dollars at $747,450 – we’ve seen these up over $100,000 in the past 12 months.”

The average asking price for a 1 or 2 bedroom homes in Auckland is now higher than the average asking price for all homes across the country. Now at $565,600, the asking prices for these smaller homes in the City of Sails is up 17.3 per cent over the past year and hit a new record high.

While Auckland was busy setting new record highs for asking price, the national average asking price fell month-on-month by 0.8 per cent to $535,250.

Beyond Auckland

Mr Jeffries said that while Auckland remained the obvious outlier there were interesting trends elsewhere. Twelve regions saw average asking prices increase, while three saw declines.

Canterbury picked up pace again, after a bit of a pause, with a new record average asking price of $469,600 in May. This was up 12.0 per cent year-on-year.

Two more provincial regions showing strong growth in asking price expectation were Taranaki and Southland. Southland was up 13.3 per cent to $249,500 while in Taranaki it was up a hefty $67,800 in the past year to $304,250.

At the other end of the spectrum, Hawke’s Bay was down 3.1 per cent on a year ago, although the region has seen significant rises over the past nine months. Otago was also down, just 0.2 per cent though, as it begins to show signs of edging back into positive price expectations following five consecutive months of falling price expectation.

Price expectation for large houses lead the market

Looking at property size, there is more pressure on price expectations for larger homes of 5 or more bedrooms. Mr Jeffries said this was a function of the Auckland market where average asking prices were up 20.5 per cent rise in the past 12 months to $1,197,200 – an increase of over $190,000.

In contrast to Auckland, the average asking price for a large home in Wellington and Christchurch fell in May, down 4.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively. In the past year the average asking price in Wellington was $635,550 and in Christchurch it was $752,150.

Table 1: Average asking price by property size & city

Auckland apartments top $500,000 for the first time

Mr Jeffries said the “oft-maligned cousin” of the Auckland housing market had seen price expectations surge recently. Over the last year the average asking price for an Auckland apartment has risen a massive $114,050 to a record high of $504,500. In comparison, five years ago the average asking price for an Auckland apartment was $316,000.

Units in Auckland have seen similar appreciation in price expectation and average asking prices edged past the half million dollar mark in May. Five years ago the asking price was $318,100, last month that had reached $509,250, up 60 per cent.

Table 2: Average asking price by property type & city

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