Housing market activity

Updated: 19 March 2010

Volume of houses sold is down from its peak in 2009, but houses are taking fewer days to sell since April 2009 

Overall house sales activity was down by 3.8 percent in February 2010 and down by 1.1 percent in January 2010, compared with the same months in the previous year. As Figure 12 indicates, the surge in sales during 2009 appears to have ended; activity in January 2010 fell back to just below January 2009 levels.

Figure 12: Residential property sales (to February 2010)

Source: Real Estate Institute of New Zealand

Figure 13 shows that the median time taken to sell a property in February 2010 was 46 days, shorter than the 62 days it took in February 2009, but 3 days longer than in January 2010. Since April 2009, the time taken to sell residential property has been shorter than for the same month in the previous year.

Figure 13: Days to sell a residential property (to February 2010)

Source: Real Estate Institute of New Zealand