Auckland's property market has been especially slow in January, and amplified a national slow-down in the latest figures, the Real Estate Institute says. Photo: 123rf
The real estate market has started the new year slowly, with houses staying on the market for longer and fewer properties being sold.
The Real Estate Institute's (REINZ) house price index for January, which measures the changing value of properties, fell 13.9 percent annually and was down 1.3 percent from the previous month.
The median national sale price for residential property fell 13.3 percent annually, to $762,500.
Excluding Auckland, the median price fell 9.3 percent percent, to $679,000.
Auckland's median price fell 21.7 percent to $940,000, which meant its median price had fallen below $1 million for the first time in two years.
The median number of days to sell a property was 53, up 16 days from January 2022, and the number of residential property sales decreased by 27 percent from a year ago.
REINZ chief executive Jen Baird said January was traditionally a slower month due to the holiday period.
"This month is no exception, although intensified in Auckland by ... poor weather, with the least number of sales since records began - excluding April 2020 during the country's lockdown - at 943 sales," Baird said.
"The rest of the country had also seen a record low for the month, with less than 3000 sales (2759) nationally."
However, Baird said there were some signs of the market stabilising.
"If you look at those seasonally adjusted numbers, what we see is sales are up 10 percent moving from December to January, indicating sales performance better than expected," she said.
"Agents in many areas are reporting more attendance at open homes, more interest online and even more multi-offer situations."
Baird said inventory increased nearly 40 percent year-on-year, with 27,732 properties on the market.
"Add to that prices that have eased over the last 12 months, and some less bad economic news coming out recently, it seems there are more buyers active in the market.
"February and March data will tell us if they choose to act."