Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Spring came late for the housing market but it arrived last month, the Real Estate Institute says.
It has released its latest data that show the number of sales across the country was up 6.4 percent year-on-year in the month, at 7505.
Gisborne had 70 percent more sales, at 63, the West Coast was up almost 52 percent, to 44 and Taranaki up 26 percent to 184.
The national median Days to Sell decreased by one day to 41 days.
For New Zealand, excluding Auckland, it decreased by two days to 41 days.
The largest reduction in median Days to Sell was observed in Southland, down 13 days from 44 to 31. The greatest year-on-year increase in median Days to Sell was on the West Coast, rising 23 days from 24 to 47 days.
Institute chief executive Lizzy Ryley said even when the figures were seasonally adjusted, activity had picked up more than normal.
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"I think at the moment what we are seeing is good weather suddenly appearing made it feel like it was spring.
"The weather just suddenly went form being winter because October was so much better than September.
"Seasonally we were expecting to see something in September which we've seen in October. Talking around the country to everybody it feels like it just switched overnight … if the market doesn't move in October and November when will it move? And it's moving."
New Zealand's median price decreased by 1.1 percent year-on-year, to $786,000. Excluding Auckland, the median price increased by 0.6 percent year-on-year to $710,000. The house price index, which smooths out variation in the median sale price caused by the types of properties selling was up 0.3 percent year-on-year.
Auckland's median price lifted over $1 million for the first time since March. West Coast and Queenstown Lakes also hit new records.
"It really shows that demand isn't just holding up, but actually lifting, especially in premium and regional areas," Ryley said.
Shed said Auckland seemed to be showing more confidence.
"You've got people starting to lose that fear of paying too much. They're starting to go 'ok it's safe for me to do something'. There's also probably a sense of house prices have dropped quite significantly over the last few years…. Now they are stabilising, just moving gently up a bit and people go 'ok, it's a good time'.
"I suspect people do feel like it's likely they'll stay flattish or level but there is always that feeling that with the OCR impact they could move up … there's going to be potentially an opportunity."
New listings continue to rise around the country, up 5.5 percent year-on-year to 12,209. New Zealand, excluding Auckland, also recorded an increase, up 4.2 percent year-on-year to 7783. Inventory levels have returned to over 33,000, up 3.9 percent nationally year-on-year to 33,588.
"First-home buyers continue to be a dominant group across the country, taking advantage of lower interest rates and a stabilised market in terms of price, closely followed by owner-occupiers," Ryley said.
"Salespeople are telling us that the warmer weather, lower interest rates, and easing lending criteria have brought more people back into the market and boosted activity in many regions, which we can see from the data."
She said people were optimistic without being too excited. "The cost of living is so high still."
ANZ economists said prices seemed likely to finish the year at about their forecast for 0.5 percent to 1 percent year-on-year growth.
"However, sales volumes were stronger, rising 4.2 percent month-on-month to be above their historical average, indicating some resilience in demand. Days to sell were steady around their past year's average. Overall, there hasn't been any decisive charge in the direction of the market this month, though higher sales volumes provide some tentative evidence of stronger demand."
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