The latest figures from the Real Estate Institute (REINZ) for November put Dunedin’s median price at $607,095, breaching the $600,000 figure before the end of the year, as many agents had been predicting.
The Dunedin figure is 16.7% up on the same time last year.
REINZ Dunedin commentator Liz Nidd said first-home buyers were jostling with "mum and dad investors" at open homes trying to secure a spot in the market or to get an investment property before loan-to-value-ratio (LVR) restrictions came back.
Prices were still being pushed up by high demand and not enough supply.
In the Queenstown area it was much the same story and the median price was up 14.2% on last year to $1,085,000.
REINZ Queenstown director Gail Hudson said first-home buyers were struggling on several fronts; competing with investors and out-of-town buyers and it was also difficult to secure finance from the banks.
"Property is selling quickly with days-to-sell at 35 days, down 16 days from the same time last year," she said.
Southland had a bigger increase than both Dunedin and Queenstown, up 23.6% from a year ago to a median price of $395,500.
Property was selling in Southland faster than everywhere else. Along with Taranaki, the median days-to-sell for the region was 21 days.
The housing market continues to run hot across the country, with a record national median price of $749,000 in November.
The new figure is an 18.5% increase on the median price for November 2019 and a $24,000 increase on last month's median price.
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said that rate of growth was unsustainable.
"Since October 2011, we've seen successive annual increases in median house prices and the last five months have been double-digit increases.
"This just isn't sustainable and with data out earlier this week showing that the gap between those that own and those that rent is just going to keep growing unless we can do something to start addressing the supply issue the country has."
She said November was a stand-out month for the number of properties sold.
"Just shy of 10,000 properties sold over 30 days. The last time we saw a similar level of sales volumes was back in March 2007, before the national recession and Global Financial Crisis started impacting New Zealand's property market."
She said sales were likely driven by people wanting to buy before Christmas, the looming reinstatement of loan-to-value ratio restrictions and fears that prices would continue to rise.
The volume of properties sold was up 29.6% year-on-year. The West Coast market was well above the national average, with year-on-year volumes sold up 74.4%.
Auckland, Northland, Canterbury, Bay of Plenty, Nelson and Waikato also saw strong volume increase.
As well as the national median hitting a record, 11 regions also recorded new highs.
Tasman, Manawatu-Whanganui and Southland were the biggest gainers.
— Additional reporting RNZ
Related Stories
Comments
The consequences of low interest rates: asset price increases and the destruction of savings. We are impoverishing our youth with high debt levels whilst existing homeowners are smiling. All during a time when most have little to no savings for a rainy day. The other reason for high property prices: planning constraints/supply. Think if low rise apartments were permitted in say Dunedin's Princes St and side streets, which replaced the rotting and abandoned buildings and how many hundreds could be housed? But no, the DCC would rather they sit decaying because of their regulations. How come everyone in the city sees it except them?
Get Vandervis on to it.... He'll sort it out and have it done quick smart... whoops, he can't because no one wants to work with him due to his abrasive nature. Is'nt his his 3rd term and still zero archived?
New Zealand household debt accounted for 96.9 % of the country's Nominal GDP in Jun 2020. We are among the top 5 most 'overvalued' countries for property in the world. I don't mind spending $500k or 600k for a house, but when you look at what your getting in Dunedin for that much money now.. no thanks. And once immigration resumes again, this will drive them up even further. Perhaps the Gov should look at limiting how may homes anyone can have. I know of some people that have 7 or more. That needs to stop.
How different things would be if Kiwi Build was delivering......
As long as immigration numbers outstrips new builds, the market will continue to rise...and rise.
So let's just keep bringing in more people...and impoverishing our own kids with the debt of having to buy into an increasingly overstretched housing supply.
It's time we started putting ordinary New Zealanders - and our kids - first.
Stop immigration. That's the answer.
Although then, on the other hand, one million Kiwi's live overseas. If they all came home, where would they live? A bigger problem, if we never allowed immigration, and other countries prevented us from living overseas, we'd still have one million Kiwi's that never left home.....still looking for a house.
We solved the very same problem sixty years ago. Look how quickly ten's of thousands of homes were built to house the fast growing population up and down the country.
NZ was a very different place, the government of the time very pro-active and the building industry of the day? was The Ministry of Works. They got the job done, built houses, built huge hydro power stations, built entire road networks in short timeframes.....and not a jolly refective jacket or road cone in sight!
Now it's a free for all, open to market forces from near and afar, we're all suffering the promise of globalisation. We can't turn back the clock. The solutions of the past aren't relevant now. But it surprises me to no end, how we consider ourselves so well educated and technologically advanced, yet we can't provide basic healthy housing for families without miles of red tape and eye waterering costs!
I arrived to New Zealand in 2014 and I'm still renting. Almost all of my colleagues and immigrant friends who arrived at around the same time still renting too and struggling to buy their first home, even when some of them sold their homes in their home country. I've been working hard and created a business here, I've been paying high taxes (over 4 times higher than back home) and I've been saving as much as I can to buy a first home, but I still can't afford it - the home prices are rising too fast. Today I'm looking for an opportunity to relocate myself and my business to another place with more healthy tax and property environment, and I believe that many other migrants and Kiwis are doing the same.
The current mob in power crowed about the "housing crisis" for 9 years in opposition. Seeing things have markedly gotten worse, and faster, since given the hammer 3 and bit years ago, shows me they never spent their time thinking how to do it better than just yelling that there was an issue.
And are obviously still bereft of ideas