Asking prices rise, but house sales drying up

Photo / Doug Sherring.

Asking prices for property are up while one real estate agency reports the market is becoming more difficult for vendors to make a sale.

The average property asking price rose 2.9 per cent in October to a record high of $618,000, according to Trade Me's property data released today.

Auckland's average asking price also rose - to a new high of $897,300, as did the average asking prices in the Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, Marlborough, Nelson, Waikato and Wellington.

Trade Me property head Nigel Jeffries said the market had "spluttered back to life".

"The last 30 days has seen over $17,000 added to the average asking price of property for sale in New Zealand. It's been a familiar story recently, with new price records being broken almost every month and over $46,000 added to sellers' expectations over the last year," Jeffries said.

Data showed sellers in Auckland sent average asking prices to $897,300 in the three months to October. In the last year the average asking price of a property in Auckland has risen by $104,850 - 13.2 per cent.

"The unrelenting march of the Auckland property market over the last five years has seen average asking prices for a typical Auckland property explode from $515,600 in October 2011 to today's record peak of $897,300.

"That's more than $380,000 extra that buyers are being asked to cough up."

Harcourt's property data reveals October house sales in Auckland's property market were down 4.7 per cent from September.

The decline signals the property market is no longer moving with the force and speed seen at the same time last year.

New listings in Auckland increased by 13.2 per cent from September, Harcourts chief executive Chris Kennedy said.

Kennedy said sellers are having to be more discerning in regards to the way they present their properties.

The average sale price in October is $919,966 in comparison to $885,935 from October last year, according to Harcourts' data.