Real Institute of New Zealand regional commentator Liz Nidd told the Otago Daily Times the institute had decided to reinstate territorial authority boundaries for real estate data.
That meant high-demand and high-priced areas, such as Central Otago and the Queenstown-Lakes District, were now included in Otago, skewing the results. More than 10 years ago, Mrs Nidd lobbied successfully to have the two areas monitored separately. But now they were both back and included in Otago.
The figures supplied by the national institute showed prices rose 25% in Central Otago, 22% in Clutha and 19% in Queenstown-Lakes. Compared to March, the median price rose $16,000, or 4%. Prices rose 19% in Queenstown-Lakes, 6% in Central Otago and 1% in Dunedin.
Dunedin includes the wider suburbs of the city and the figures are not broken down to include such areas as coastal, the Taieri, or Otago Peninsula.
Mrs Nidd urged caution in interpreting the figures until comparative data was available, which could take 12 months.
However, she did point to an important issue for Dunedin in the 70 fewer sales in April compared with March.
"We could sell 100 more a month if we could get them. We don’t have enough. The houses are not sitting on the market and the days to sell are among the lowest I can remember in the last 30 years."
It took an average of 26 days to sell a house in Dunedin.
Last week, a Pine Hill property drew 13 offers. The property was tidy but not particularly special. Likewise, a brick bungalow on North Rd also had 13 offers.
Vendors of houses on the flat should not be worried about the price of their homes, she said. There were so few houses around, people needed to buy them.
Institute figures showed sales across the region fell 28% compared to March. Sales were down 8% in Central Otago, 19% in Waitaki and 26% in Queenstown-Lakes.
Compared April last year, sales fell 30% in Otago. They fell 27% in Dunedin, 28% in Waitaki and 34% in Central Otago.
In Southland, the median price rose $11,000, or 5%, compared with April last year.
Prices rose 21% in Gore and 10% in Invercargill but fell 1% in Southland District.
Compared to March, the median price fell $20,000, or 9%. Prices rose in the Southland District but fell 6% in Invercargill and 13% in Gore.
The national data showed prices were stable and sales volumes fell across New Zealand during April as the market moved past the traditional March peak and into a typical cyclical April.
Three regions reached new record high median sale prices in April as the national median price rose 10.4% to $540,000 year-on-year. They were Waikato (up 22.3% to $489,200), Wellington (up 18.8% to $527,000) and Otago (up 12.7% to $381,000). Sales for April dropped 9% to 5845. A combination of exceptionally wet April weather, plus school holidays and Easter and Anzac Day, were probably responsible for the lower sales.
