Gisborne property prices edge out 2007 boom

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GISBORNE’S latest median house price of $310,000 means the local residential market has passed the peak of the property boom when the local median price peaked at $307,000 in 2007.

The October report from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) shows Gisborne’s median price has risen by 17.9 percent in the 12 months from October 2016, and by 14.8 percent since September 2017.

The number of Gisborne house sales began to rise in October 2017.

Bindi Norwell, REINZ chief executive, said that in the last three months, not one of the 16 regions in New Zealand had experienced an increase in sales volumes year-on-year.

“However, this month (October) we’ve seen two regions, Gisborne and Southland, with an increase, up 8 percent and 1 percent respectively, suggesting that we’re starting to see the traditional spring increase finally kick in.”

The number of Gisborne houses available for sale has decreased by 25 percent compared to 12 months ago.

That compares to properties available nationwide increasing by 4 percent (from 23,385 to 24,307) over the same period.

There were also significant decreases in housing stock on the West Coast at 19 percent and in Marlborough at 15 percent.

Prices rose in 14 of New Zealand’s 16 regions for the year to October, leading to the median house price for New Zealand, excluding Auckland, to reach a record price of $440,000, an 8.5 percent increase.

The two exceptions were Auckland, down 3.2 percent year-on-year to $850,000, and Nelson, where prices decreased by 6.8 percent to $447,500.

Including Auckland, the national median price rose by 3.9 percent year-on-year to $530,000.

“As we’ve seen for some months now, prices across the country have continued to increase, albeit at a slower rate than the increases we’ve seen in some regions for the last couple of years,’’ Ms Norwell said.

“Waikato is now the sixth region in the country to have exceeded the half a million dollar mark at least once, something that a few months ago we predicted would happen shortly.”