The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) has released its October results, which showed that only 4892 residential sales were recorded throughout the nation in October, which was down 35% compared to October last year and down 31% compared to October 2019 before the Covid pandemic disrupted the market. Perhaps even more significant was the fact that sales fell in October compared to September (-4.3%). This is unusual given sales generally rise strongly in October:Commenting on the sales result, REINZ CEO Jen Baird noted that “adjusting for seasonality, we note sales are down 9.5% — October performed poorer than expected compared to September”. Personally, I view this price rebound as a ‘dead cat bounce’ given the Reserve Bank is expected to hike interest rates aggressively over coming months to tame stubbornly high inflation. As long as the Reserve Bank continues to lift interest rates, New Zealand house prices will fall.

Source: New Zealand Herald November 15, 2022 03:50 UTC