Residential property market steady in September

- Information from REINZ

Residential property sales were sluggish in September with 4,499 sales recorded, compared with 4,220 in August. The median house price overall remained unchanged at $330,000.

President of the Real Estate Institute Mike Elford, believes the lower than normal volume of properties being listed is a reflection of people’s resistance to realising losses on the value of their property.

People are probably also waiting to see what the Reserve Bank will do with the Official Cash Rate.
Last month’s 0.5% cut had little effect. However, a further cut is expected to bring some relief with the retail banks dropping their interest rates.

The average number of days to sell a house remained on a par with last month (52 in September compared with 55 in August which in turn was a drop from 58 in July) but is still 20 days more than the average 32 days in September 2007.