Housing market 'may have turned corner'

Positive noises coming out of the property sector continue to grow, with a further suggestion the housing market may have turned the corner.

The Mike Pero Mortgages-Infometrics property cycle indicator - released today and measured on a scale from minus 10 to plus 10 - reached minus 3.36 in April up from minus 5.93 in March.

It had been improving since August last year, Mike Pero Mortgages said today.

The indicator is prepared from an analysis of changes in house sales, price movements, and the time taken for properties to sell, using Real Estate Institute of New Zealand data.

House sales volumes were up 40 per cent in April, compared with a year earlier, which was particularly impressive considering the Easter holidays would have affected sales this year, Mike Pero chief executive Shaun Riley said.

The average time taken for a house to sell in April was 42 days, a shorter time than a year earlier, and the first time this measure had improved since mid-2007.

Average house prices, the third component of the indicator, were down 1.4 per cent in April compared with a year earlier, but were on a rising trend in the first four months of this year.

- NZPA