As each month’s data is presented there is considerable interest in the area of new property listings, inventory of listings, overall housing stock, and, importantly, property asking prices. The best measure of data is to give comparison to the same month last year and although February has fewer days of trading, this time last year we were first hearing about the potential issues of Covid-19 and the transmission of cases through the community. Although sales did not slow down there was commentary towards the end of the month around the housing market and what may occur in the next 12-month period.
New property listings are a measure of new supply and generally add to the portfolio of stock. More new listings need to come to the market than the amount of property selling for inventory to build and while across New Zealand there was a marginal lift in the number of new listings at 1.8 per cent, there was a considerable lift in the number of sales which saw a balance in February in regard to inventory levels. Overall, there were 10,736 properties listed nationally and the markets to see increases above 10 per cent included Auckland, Central Otago, Otago, and Gisborne. While there were a band of markets that had little change, in the Wairarapa, Nelson, and the West Coast, new property listings declined by more than 10 per cent.
