Election uncertainty's chilling effect on houses for sale

Trade Me property data is out this morning.

The usual spring surge of house listings has failed to materialise and the election is partly to blame, according to the head of Trade Me Property who says Auckland is particularly dire.

"We are seeing unusually low stock for this time of year," said Nigel Jeffries.

"We think homeowners are to some extent waiting for an election outcome before they put their property on the market. The market is typically flooded with new properties in spring, but we saw 10 per cent less new listings​ ​in​ ​September​ ​than​ ​last​ ​year."

New listings in Auckland fell 20 per cent in September compared to the same month last year, he said.

Barfoot & Thompson listed 1734 new properties in May, 1570 in June, 1173 in July, 1260 in August and 1414 last month.

February was its busiest new-listing month this year, with 2295 properties new to its books.

Jeffries said Auckland prices rose only 2.5 per cent in the last year, according to the Trade Me Property Price Index which measures trends in the expectations of selling prices via listings by real​ ​estate​ ​agents​ ​and​ ​private​ ​sellers in ​the​ ​past​ ​three​ ​months.

Auckland was pulling the national average asking price down, he said.

"While the average asking price outside Auckland is up a healthy 7 per cent, the Super City's slow market is dragging the national average asking price down, given it makes up 35 per cent of the​ ​country's​ ​listings​ ​for​ ​sale," he said.

Hawke's Bay asking prices rose 20.4 per cent in the last year and listing volumes there are up 20 per cent in September.

In Wellington it was 10 per cent but Canterbury asking prices rose only 0.2 per cent.