Property website Trade Me Property reports signs the housing market has a large oversupply of unsold homes.
Trade Me said the number of properties listed for sale on its platform reached a decade high in February and continued to rise by an additional 6% in March, resulting in a total stock increase of 12% compared to March of the previous year.
Website traffic for property viewings also increased, indicating heightened buyer interest—a predictable trend given that February and March are historically the peak months for residential real estate activity.
“We’ve seen a fairly persistent imbalance between supply and demand in more recent times, with more homes available than demand suppressing the big pricing gains we saw back in 2021,” Trade Me Property Customer Director Gavin Lloyd said.
“While it’s great to see demand momentum gaining, and we saw highs in March not seen since mid-2020, the current market still offers buyers a huge amount of choice,” he added.
According to the platform, the average asking price for properties in March reached $861,900, representing a $10,000 (1.2%) increase from February.
However, this figure still reflects a 2.6% decrease when compared to March of the previous year.
Across the country, price trends in March showed a mixed pattern. Regions such as Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu/Whanganui, Nelson/Tasman, and Canterbury experienced increases in average asking prices compared to February.
Meanwhile, Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Taranaki, Marlborough, West Coast, Otago, and Southland saw declines.
Wellington remains unchanged.
Meanwhile, Trade Me Property’s rival website Realestate.co.nz reported 36,870 residential properties available for sale at the end of March, marking the highest monthly total since April 2015.
This represented a 10.9% increase compared to March last year and a 25.9% rise from March 2023. This also reflects a near-doubling (+90%) in available homes for sale since March 2021, when the market was at its peak.