Christmas has come early for those actively involved in the Auckland Market as data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand shows that both house prices and sales volumes were significantly on the rise in November.

Here’s what you need to know:

House Prices and Sales Volumes remain Strong in November

It seems the residential property market refuses to end the year on a low, with prices generally rising and sales more buoyant in Auckland.

Sales figures for Auckland’s November’s sales were up 8.7% compared to a year ago, but more impressively, up 19% compared to November 2017, this according to data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

The overall Auckland region price trends were mixed, with the median price setting a record of $1,030,000, while Franklin was flat on $702,000 and on the North Shore the median was $985,000 – down 6.2% on November last year.

REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell suggested that this upward trend over the past three months shows that there is a returned confidence and this trend could be the new normal going forward, “Increasing levels of confidence in the property market coupled with low interest rates and a lack of choice of new listings means that people are prepared to pay more for properties than they were a few months ago.”

This trend was evident in the recorded activity in the first week of December in Barfoot & Thompson’s auction rooms, which remained solid, with the real estate agency handling 171 residential property auctions in the week from December 2-8, compared to 156 the previous week.

For the rest of the country, the total volume of homes sold in November was down 1.9% compared to November last year but up 4.3% compared to November 2017.

Vacant Land Tax Dead on Arrival

The idea of a vacant land tax has officially been axed after a final report from the Productivity Commission deemed that a vacant land tax would ultimately prove to be a tax on new housing and would have harmful effects.

The proposed tax would have possibly seen a vacant residential land tax and / or a tax on empty homes being implemented soon.

The land tax was one of the key proposals put forward by the Tax Working Group in February – although of course this tax was overshadowed by the proposal the TWG for a Capital Gains Tax (CGT). The CGT was ruled out by the Government, but Finance Minister Grant Robertson subsequently referred its recommendation for a vacant land tax to the Productivity Commission to consider in its report.

Both Treasury and Inland Revenue had been against the idea and with it now receiving the thumbs down from the Productivity Commission it seems the idea is now reached its logical end – at least under this Government.

-Ravi Mehta, from Professional Finance Solutions