Auckland apartment market fuels up

Auckland has shown almost double number of apartments listed for sale in June

Auckland apartment market fuels up
The number of apartments listed for sale in Auckland almost doubled during May, while listings in other main centres declined, according to the latest data from realestate.co.nz.

In June, real time statistics revealed new apartment listings gained some 2.2% in Auckland to 800 from 453 in the previous month. 

“We’ve been collecting property data for more than 10 years and never before have we seen so many apartments come onto the market in one month,” realestate.co.nz spokesperson, Vanessa Taylor said.

One and two bedroom apartments made up the lion’s share of the apartment listing in the property market nationwide.

A surge in the number of apartments for sale from one, two, and three bedrooms was seen with 52.8%, 45.5%, and 18.3% year-on-year increase, respectively.

“The Auckland apartment market is catering to a wider variety of buyers, with one bedroom apartments best suited to students and two, three or more bedrooms appealing to families,” Taylor said.

“Kiwis have traditionally been brought up in a home and garden environment, but housing has evolved over the decades, particularly in Auckland with apartments, subdivisions, cross leases and terraced housing very much a part of the landscape.”

“With apartments typically being more affordable than houses, this has pulled down Auckland’s total average asking price for the month,” Taylor said.

The average asking price for an Auckland apartment stood at $679,170 which is down by 4.7% from the $917,250 of all residential dwellings in May. 

While the Auckland apartment market booms, new listings in the other main centres declined. In the Wellington region, for example, number of apartments for sale dipped to 13.4%, the biggest drop in June.

This is followed by Canterbury, Waikato and Bay of Plenty with new listings dropping to 13%, 12% and 10% respectively.