House buyers may be holding off until Budget

Tax fears may be deterring landlords from buying, one real estate agency says.

Peter Thompson, Barfoot & Thompson's managing director, blamed a monthly price drop on the Budget expectations.

Auckland average house sale prices dropped by more than $3000 last month, said the city's biggest agency.

They were down from $545,156 in March to $541,486 in April. But Mr Thompson said April often showed falling volumes but relatively stable prices.

Investors would know more after the Budget, he said.

"The Budget will give certainty to the market once people have analysed any changes it may contain. Those familiar with traditional Auckland trading patterns will read nothing significant into this month's trading."

The Budget is expected to change the tax treatment of rental property after the Tax Working Group's report in January said that in 2008 the $200 billion invested in rental housing yielded net rental losses totalling $500 million.

Barfoot's results showed the opposite trend to the latest monthly Real Estate Institute data out on April 16, which reported the national median price jumping $10,500 from $350,000 in February to $360,500 in March.

Auckland house sales showed price rises higher than elsewhere in New Zealand, from a median $453,500 to $475,000, up $22,000 between the two months during the city's hot summer.

House prices rose to their highest March level in two decades and the number of sales passed 6000 after dropping at the end of last year, REINZ said.

Philip Borkin, Goldman Sachs JBWere's economist, said people were waiting for this month's Budget.

"Auckland house sales volumes remain low. They have slowly ground higher over the past few months. Nevertheless, we class the market as being in a holding pattern with details of the Budget awaited. It is quite possible that pent-up demand is released post-Budget," Mr Borkin said.

He noticed a high turnover of cheaper places last month.

"While we don't place too much weight on the B&T measure of house prices due to compositional influences, the average sales price dropped marginally. This appears to have been driven by a greater proportion of sales below $500,000 more than anything else. House prices have remained relatively resilient to date to the low level of turnover," he said.