Harcourts reports significant lift in sales

Harcourts reports significant lift in sales continuing

Harcourts latest statistics show the New Zealand property market is continuing to experience significantly higher levels of sales activity than 12 months ago, according to Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson.

Commenting in the latest Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter Mr Thomson said that sales consultants within Harcourts New Zealand, which is the country’s largest real estate group, wrote an average of 30.8% more sales in June 2009 than in the same month last year, continuing a trend the company has been reporting for some months.

“The largest increases in written sales were in Harcourts’ Central region, where we recorded a 58% increase on June 2008, followed by Harcourts’ Northern region which was 51% up, Harcourts’ Christchurch region which had a 34% increase in written sales and Harcourts’ Wellington region which recorded 29% more,” Mr Thomson says.

“These increases in sales coupled with lower than expected numbers of new listings is seeing buyers experiencing considerable competition when looking to secure a new property and, in an effort to capitalise on this, increasing numbers of sellers are choosing auction campaigns, which according to feedback from Harcourts offices around the country is proving to be the most successful method of sale.”

In terms of residential property prices, Mr Thomson says the competition evident over recent months has seen price levels stabilise “and resulted in some of the more pessimistic commentators publicly revising their predictions about house price movement over the months ahead”.

Interestingly, demand for residential sections appears to be reigniting in many locations, he says.

“Harcourts offices around New Zealand are reporting a considerable increase in enquiry in these types of property, with some experiencing a lift in sales already and others expecting this to occur in the near future.”

Mr Thomson says this trend is to be expected given the lack of houses for sale and the fact that the availability of tradespeople has improved and they are typically being more negotiable on price too.

ENDS

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