Median house sale values drop at Mount, Papamoa

Median house values have dropped in Papamoa and Mt Maunganui. Photo / file

Tauranga's median house sale price continues to rise, but Mt Maunganui and Papamoa prices have slipped.

Figures released by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show that Tauranga's median price hit $600,000 in December, up slightly on the previous month and up a whopping $130,000 on the same month a year earlier.

However, Papamoa's median of $615,000 was down significantly on the previous month and up a relatively modest $55,000 compared with a year earlier.

Most real estate agents spoken to yesterday said that Christmas disrupted the market, and all said that sale price averages were being skewed by the types of homes being sold.

Ross Stanway, chief executive of Realty Services, which runs the Bayleys and Eves agencies, said it was important not to read too much into monthly fluctuations.

He said rises and falls in median values did not mean that the values of individual homes were going up or down, as activity at the more expensive or cheaper ends of the market could push the averages in that direction.

In the case of the Mount and Papamoa, the drop in average values likely resulted from more expensive homes being sold in November than in December.

Harcourts' sales manager for the Mount and Papamoa, Nigel Martin, said some high-priced properties were unavailable in December because people were staying in them for the holidays, and it was possible that more homes were being sold in cheaper Papamoa than at the more expensive Mount. Both factors could affect median prices.

Greg Purcell, a licensee agent with Ray White in Papamoa, said the bottom end of the market "took a hammering" towards the end of last year because of new loan-to value lending rules which force banks to insist on a 40 per cent deposit from most investors.

This was one reason for greater sales at the top of the market year-on-year.

He did feel there had been some easing in the market in his area. This was partly due to an "umbilical cord" connection with the softening situation in Auckland.

"We're still getting good numbers," he said.

"But it's not like those heady, halcyon days six months ago. It's far more moderate than it was, and that's a good thing."

Tauranga real estate agents agreed that market activity resumed slightly earlier this month than was normal for January.

Last week the Bay of Plenty Times reported QV figures showing that house price averages were $672,000 for Tauranga and $571,000 for the Western Bay. Those figures were obtained by adding up the value of houses and dividing the total by the number of houses.

The REINZ figures are for the median average, which is calculated by ranking the homes from most expensive to least expensive and choosing the value of the home in the middle.

Median house sale prices

Tauranga
Dec 2016: $600,000, 121 homes sold
Nov 2016: $590,000, 163 homes sold
Dec 2015: $470,000, 208 homes sold

Mt Maunganui, Papamoa
Dec 2016: $615,000, 85 homes sold
Nov 2016: $671,250, 114 homes sold
Dec 2015: $560,000, 135 homes sold