Sales in January were up 17.5 percent on January 2024 but down 37.6 percent from December, the Real Estate Institute says. Photo: RNZ
Fewer than 4000 homes sold across the country in January, but the Real Estate Institute says it was just a normal holiday slowdown and things are likely to pick up this month.
It has released its data for January, which shows the 3774 sales in the month were up 17.5 percent on January 2024 but down 37.6 percent from December.
"We've seen a fairly typical start to the year, January tends to be slower but it is the beginning of the busiest time of the property market and we can see this year has started better than last year," chief executive Jen Baird said.
"February and March are always the busiest months in real estate."
She said she was hearing from agents across the country that there had been a significant increase in positive sentiment from buyers and sellers.
"There is quite a high proportion of first-home buyers in the market at the moment. Real estate agents across the country are saying owner-occupiers moving around are always the biggest set but there are lots of first-home buyers looking at this now and thinking from an affordability perspective, interest rates are continuing to come down, prices are good, now is the time. We've just started to hear the word 'investor' again."
Marlborough, up 62.5 percent, and the West Coast, up 47.4 percent, had particularly strong year-on-year growth in activity.
The median sale price across the country dropped 1.7 percent compared to 2024, to $750,000. Baird said prices had been "fairly stable" for the past few months.
Excluding Auckland, the national median lifted 0.9 percent to $691,500.
Eight of the 16 regions that the institute tracks had an increase in median prices compared to 2024.
Gisborne was up the most - 28.2 percent to $660,000, followed by Nelson up 2.54 percent to $840,000.
New listings were strongly up, up 21.1 percent from last January to this to 8904. The number of properties available for sale increased 18.9 percent year-on-year and 10 percent compared to December.
"There's now over 32,000 properties for sale on the market. Buyers have got a lot of choice," Baird said.
"One thing we do seem to think in New Zealand is when interest rates come down property prices will start going up but when there is so much supply buyers can take their time and be cautious and negotiate and we are seeing that. Sellers need to be realistic."
The new listings were the highest level coming on to the market in any January since 2015.
Baird said she hoped 2025 would be a better year for the property market than 2024. "Although last year was better than 2023, 2023 was a really tough year in the property market. Last year was busier. We're continuing to see year-on-year growth in sales volumes.
"We are seeing more properties coming to market and more deals being done."
