The housing market could be facing a challenging spring
The New Zealand housing market is showing signs of instability as it enters the spring season, characterized by rising inventory and a significant increase in unsold properties. High numbers of property listings being withdrawn from the market suggest a disconnect between seller price expectations and current market realities.
Why it matters
Rising unsold inventory and market dropouts are key indicators of a cooling real estate sector, which can have broader implications for national economic health.
The New Zealand housing market looks to be in an increasingly precarious position as it heads into spring.
Both the stock of properties for sale and the overhang of unsold properties is up compared to this time last year, while the number of properties dropping out of the market remains elevated for the time of year. Meanwhile the number of sales is down significantly on a year ago.
Property website Realestate.co.nz had a total of 32,908 residential properties available for sale at the end of August. That was up almost 10% on the same time last year, and was the most properties the website has had for sale at the end of August in 12 years.
Contributing to the high stock level was the large overhang of unsold properties.
The overhang is the number of properties that remain unsold after being on the market for more than a month.
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