Fewer houses sold and it's taking longer

It took an average of 45 days to sell a house in Auckland last month. Photo/Michael Craig.

Fewer houses are selling and it's taking longer to sell them, data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand shows.

The number of residential properties sold across New Zealand fell to 5,978 in June, down 3.8 per cent from the 6,213 sold a year earlier, REINZ said.

Excluding Auckland, the number of properties fell 4 per cent to 4,159. The June sales were the lowest for a June month in five years.

Hawke's Bay saw 287 houses sold, down 26.8 per cent from a year ago, while Taranaki saw 139 homes sold, down 34.9 per cent.

REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell also said that new listings were down 7.3 per cent on the year.

"Feedback from parts of the country is that some people are reluctant to list their property for sale without somewhere to move to and with fewer listings coming on to the market, it's slowing down the property cycle and impacting sales volume," she said.

Inventories, however, remain high. The total number of properties available for sale nationally increased by 4 per cent to 23,519 – an increase of 914 properties compared to 12 months ago.

Meanwhile, the median number of days to sell stretched to 41 days versus 38 in June last year. Auckland saw the number of days to sell a property increase to 45 from 40.

Auctions were used in 10.2 per cent of all sales across the country in June with 612 properties selling under the hammer, down from 11.2 per cent in June last year.

Earlier this week, REINZ said its latest House Price Index shows national property values rose 1.7 per cent in the year to June and would have been up 6.5 per cent had Auckland been stripped out.

The HP measure looks at total housing market activity as opposed to a median or average price.

Meanwhile, the national median price increased to $585,000 in June, up 4.5 per cent from a year ago. Excluding Auckland, the median price increased by 5.4 per cent to $485,000.

The number of homes that sold for less than $500,000 across New Zealand fell to 39.1 per cent of the market from 41.8 per cent in June last year.

The number of properties sold in the $500,000 to $750,000 bracket increased to 30.7 per cent in June from 29.2 per cent. At the top end of the market, properties selling for more than $1 million decreased to 13.1 per cent of the market from 14.5 per cent in June last year.