Housing market activity

Updated: 12 February 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 1.1 percent in January 2010 but up by 15.2 percent in December 2009 compared with the same months in the previous year. As Figure 12 indicates, the surge in sales during 2009 appears to have ended, with activity falling 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 January 2010 was 43 days, shorter than the 59 days it took in January 2009, but 10 days longer than in December 2009. Since April 2009, the monthly days to sell figures have 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