Dunedin Property Report - January 2022 (Dec 2021 stats)

While the median sale price remained at $650,000, the number of sales reduced considerably from 232 to 162. This is also well down on last December’s 251. The number of properties for sale has reduced from 461 this time last month, to 384 on the day this report was written. This is to be expected with the Christmas holiday period when few people choose to list their properties, preferring to wait until late January. We expect this number to climb above 400 over the coming days.

The stricter lending criteria is already having a cooling effect on buyer activity and we are seeing a far greater number of contracts conditional on finance and even the sale of a property. It has been good to see calls for an investigation into the enforcement of the new lending rules as it is becoming evident that first home buyers are being significantly affected by the changes adding yet another barrier to entry.

In the competitive environment we have been operating in, those who had a property to sell or needed other conditions in order to purchase were seldom the lucky ones who secured the property but this is changing. It is interesting to see companies who normally rely largely on auction as their preferred method of sale now often opting for other options such as deadline sale or sale by price because of the reduced clearance rate at auctions and the increasing number of conditional buyers who are not in a position to bid.

The number of days to sell has moved up to 30 as expected due to the holidays and people taking a little longer to make purchasing decisions with more properties available.

There were 16 sales over $1 million in Dunedin in December, including two sales over $2 million.

There were nine section sales for the month with the majority in Mosgiel and only two in the inner city.

Joe Nidd AREINZ
Owner/Principal