Wellington Residential Real Estate Market Comment
Welcome to our newsletter covering April 2010 as compared to April 2009
We trust you find the market research informative.
Marty Scott, Antonia Brown and Eliot Falconer
Harcourts Team Wellington Ltd
The period under review covers just the month of April and follows a slightly different format to previous reports which covered a 3 month period. A quarterly report covering the 3 months to the end of June will be produced in July. The number of sales in each suburb of Wellington, the average sale price and the average number of days taken to sell are compared to April 2009.
The number of sales registered in April in the suburbs researched was 128. This compares to the 146 of a year ago and represents a drop of 12%. This drop in activity has been felt around New Zealand with most parts of the country experiencing one of the lowest levels of April sales recorded in the last 10 to 12 years. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that in the month of May there was little change to this position. Having said that, we are of the opinion the threat of Budget changes to investment property tax treatment was responsible for some of the buyer inactivity. It will be interesting to observe buyer motivation in the coming months! The northern suburbs including Khandallah and Ngaio were at about the same volume of sales as last April while the western suburbs were well down with Karori particularly quiet. The 11 sales made in the city’s largest suburb in April 2010 compared with 23 sales made in April of 2009. The central city suburbs were the only areas that saw an increase in activity and even that was modest.
Excluding those suburbs which recorded less than 3 sales, the sale price change when averaged across the remaining suburbs, showed an increase of 6% over the 12 month period. In Thorndon, 4 of the 7 sales were priced at over $600 000 while other suburbs showing solid increases in average sale price included Strathmore and Seatoun. In the central city there was noticeable activity in the lower priced apartment market which dropped average sale prices. This did suggest buyers were either taking advantage of good buying opportunities, or they were galvanised by the possibility of likely interest rate rises and therefore looking to lock in 2 or 3 year fixed rates at current levels. Whatever the theories there does seem to be ongoing evidence from a number of quarters that New Zealanders are focused on de-leveraging from the high debt levels which characterised the previous years of confidence. There continues to be some vendors under pressure and good buying opportunities do exist for buyers who are well positioned to take advantage.
In the upper end of the market things were steady with the market of a year ago and certainly far ahead of what we saw during 2008. The number of sales over the $1million level was 6, entirely consistent with the 6 for the same month of 2009.
The time taken to sell a home has also remained similar to last April. The average time it took to sell in April this year was 37 days compared to the 38 days of a year ago. The fastest selling of the larger suburbs included; Hataitai, Mount Victoria, Brooklyn Wilton and Khandallah which were all within the 20 to 30 day time frame. To put this into perspective the 10 year average for time taken to sell in Wellington sits around the 40 day mark so these figures are robust and in all likelihood indicate that in these suburbs there was a shortage of good housing stock available for sale.
In summary, a market which failed to excite in terms of volumes of sales, one which saw a small but pleasing increase in average sale prices in some suburbs and one where the time taken to sell did not alter much from a year ago. Having been in business since 1888 Harcourts does know one thing, irrespective of any market, well presented and well marketed properties where the price expectation is realistic continue to attract multiple and competing buyers, resulting in very good sale prices!
Should you be thinking of buying or selling we welcome the opportunity of working with you and assure you of the finest service.
Wellington Market Analysis by Suburb
These figures compare the month of April 2010 to April of 2009.
Data is sourced from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand statistics.
Whilst every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, Harcourts Team Wellington Ltd
accepts no responsibility for any inaccuracies.
(The boxes marked with an asterisk denote too few sales to be of value when reporting averages.)
Region
|
Suburb
|
Sales
|
Average Price ($)
|
Average Days Taken To Sell
|
|
2009
|
2010
|
2009
|
2010
|
2009
|
2010
|
|
Northern
|
Khandallah
|
6
|
10
|
$792,000
|
$718,000
|
20
|
23
|
|
|
Ngaio
|
10
|
7
|
$456,000
|
$532,000
|
33
|
32
|
|
Western
|
Karori
|
23
|
11
|
$502,000
|
$493,000
|
28
|
38
|
|
|
Kelburn
|
5
|
1
|
$658,000
|
$410,000*
|
36
|
160*
|
|
|
Northland
|
4
|
3
|
$830,000
|
$614,000
|
22
|
25
|
|
|
Wadestown
|
3
|
2
|
$571,000
|
$455,000
|
28
|
34 *
|
|
|
Wilton
|
2
|
3
|
$363,000
|
$522,000
|
10
|
23
|
|
Southern
|
Berhampore
|
5
|
1
|
$417,000
|
$445,000*
|
74
|
47 *
|
|
|
Brooklyn
|
9
|
7
|
$537,000
|
$416,000
|
24
|
23
|
|
|
Island Bay
|
9
|
5
|
$482,000
|
$544,000
|
40
|
36
|
|
|
Kingston
|
1
|
2
|
$410,000
|
$447,000*
|
34 *
|
68 *
|
|
|
Melrose
|
1
|
1
|
$595,000
|
$475,000*
|
30
|
3 *
|
|
|
Newtown
|
5
|
7
|
$456,000
|
$532,000
|
33
|
32
|
|
|
Vogeltown
|
2
|
3
|
$571,000
|
$455,000
|
28
|
34
|
|
Eastern
|
Hataitai
|
5
|
5
|
$590,000
|
$632,000
|
94
|
20
|
|
|
Kilbirnie
|
5
|
2
|
$417,000
|
$634,000
|
72
|
33
|
|
|
Lyall Bay
|
4
|
2
|
$567,000
|
$575,000
|
59
|
49
|
|
|
Maupuia
|
1
|
-
|
$377,000
|
-
*
|
-
|
- *
|
|
|
Miramar
|
11
|
11
|
$448,000
|
$482,000
|
48
|
42
|
|
|
Seatoun
|
4
|
5
|
$657,000
|
$855,000
|
35
|
33
|
|
|
Strathmore
|
4
|
7
|
$438,000
|
$533,000
|
32
|
43
|
|
Central
|
Aro Valley
|
1
|
2
|
$425,000
|
$407,000*
|
15 *
|
95
|
|
|
Mt Cook
|
3
|
-
|
$253,000
|
-
*
|
40
|
- *
|
|
|
Mt Victoria
|
2
|
4
|
$585,000
|
$744,000
|
17
|
20
|
|
|
Oriental Bay
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
$1,687,000
|
-
*
|
29 *
|
|
|
Roseneath
|
3
|
3
|
$414,000
|
$603,000
|
16
|
37
|
|
|
Thorndon
|
4
|
7
|
$432,000
|
$601,000
|
22
|
58
|
|
|
Wgtn Central
|
14
|
15
|
$584,000
|
$325,000
|
85
|
45
|