After a couple of lacklustre months, movement appears to be returning to the Dunedin residential property market.
Confirmed sales last month totalled 181 - 22 more than in August and 34 ahead of July, figures released yesterday by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show.
Compared with September last year, Dunedin city sales have also jumped by 34, or 13.8%, the second highest increase of any region.
Dunedin's leap in sales last month over September last year reflected the national picture, which saw volumes up 21.1% on a year ago. Volumes were largely static in the rest of Otago and Southland.
While Dunedin's sales volumes last month were still not large relative to the "good times pre-2007", they showed welcome improvement, REINZ southern area spokeswoman Liz Nidd said yesterday.
"It is a pleasing lift, reflecting the spring resurgence."
Well-priced stock was selling quickly, she said. That was reflected in the REINZ figures which showed the median number of days a property in Dunedin city was on the market before it sold was 36 days last month, 10 days less than for properties sold in August.
Dunedin's "days to sell" median in September was the second lowest in New Zealand.
However, prices in Dunedin remain flat. The median price of $244,000 last month was $16,000 less than the previous month and $2000 less than September last year.
There was a shortage of stock in higher price brackets, Mrs Nidd said. Vendors still appeared to be "holding on and waiting for prices to improve" if they could, she said.
In Queenstown, the September figures showed the market was "ticking over", REINZ spokesman Kelvin Collins said yesterday. Sales volumes declined marginally over August and the median price increased by $44,000.
"It's more of the same," Mr Collins said.
While first-home buyers appeared to be re-entering the market in other parts of New Zealand, resulting in a lift in sales of lower-priced homes, Queenstown's market was dominated by second-home purchasers, he said. That market had been quiet over winter, with less interest than usual from Australian buyers.
Separate figures released yesterday by property valuation company QV showed residential values continued to rise last month, continuing a gradual trend over the past six months.
Nationally, property values were now 0.7% above September last year and 4.6% below the market peak of 2007, research director Jonno Ingerson said.
However, there were wide regional fluctuations. Values in Dunedin were still 7.1% below the market peak.
