Nov home sales, prices steady in NZ

Source : Business Times – 15 Dec 2009

Price index up 0.2% from Oct and 6.6% from a year ago

New Zealand house prices and sales were flat in November as the property market consolidated its gains of recent months after a sharp slump, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Reinz) said yesterday.

Sales by the industry group’s members were 0.6 per cent lower from October but were up 41.5 per cent on a year ago.

The national median house price was NZ$355,000 (S$358,600), unchanged from the previous month but up 5.2 per cent on the same month last year.

The housing market has been improving over recent months, albeit at lower levels, after its sharp decline in the past year.

‘The market appears to have retained the momentum gained over the last few years and median prices this month mirror the all-time highs experienced in October,’ Reinz President Peter McDonald said in a statement.

The Reinz’s house price index, compiled in conjunction with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, rose 0.2 per cent in November and was 6.6 per cent higher than a year earlier.

The median number of days to sell a house was 33 compared with 31 in October and 44 a year ago.

On Dec 10 the Reserve Bank of New Zealand held interest rates unchanged at 2.50 per cent, with the recovery in the housing market one factor in an improved economic outlook. The RBNZ said that at the current rate, the market peak of 2007 would be regained in early 2010.

In a survey released on Dec 7, government agency Quotable Value said house prices rose one per cent in November, with a reduced supply pushing up prices.