Since September, Wellington buyers and sellers reacted to the new OCR, and sales listings started growing faster (or buyers stopped buying) than they would previously, overtaking previous years listings for the same areas. Is there something different about Wellington? Well, yes, in the GFC, Wellington was one of the few regions that did not see a reduction in prices, just a pause in price growth.
However, it appears the Market has spoken, buyers are not buying, or sellers are rushing to the exits in some Wellington areas. Not all, which is confirmed by REINZ, in that only Wellington appears to be seeing this change.
I collect the Sales data for Wellington only, same measure as rental data, ie the total inventory or listings within each city identified by Trademe - they identify 7 areas, but I have reduced it to three, the inner city, the dormitory suburbs like Lower Hutt and Porirua and the outer ring of partly rural areas of Kapiti and Wairarapa
Wellington Region
Made up of:
Wellington City Sales
PLUS the Dormitory Suburban areas
And the outer Rural towns and cities
And one for those who find the previous charts confusing:
Sales are high in all parts of the city, some are the highest since 2016, the earliest comparable data I have, prior to 2016 agents advertised single properties multiple times for free.
