Auckland Housing Market Makes Strong Start To The Year

Auckland Housing Market Makes Strong Start To The Year

The Auckland residential housing market made a strong start to 2014 following the Christmas/New Year break with the average house price for January reaching $647,207 and the median price reaching $580,000.

“While these values have eased back on those achieved during last November and December, this is part of the normal seasonal trading pattern,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“New listings at 1228 were excellent for a January, sales at 854 were up 4.1 percent on those for January last year and 4.5 percent on December’s, and we sold 91 homes for in excess of $1 million, which is exceptionally high for the first month of the year.

“All the indications are that the market is building to being extremely active during the first quarter of the year.

“January’s sales numbers at 854 are the highest in a January for 6 years.

“The average sales price for the month is up 7.7 percent on that for January last year, but down 7.6 percent on December’s, which itself was the highest average price ever achieved in a month.

“Buyer interest was not restricted to the top end of the market. During January we sold 334 homes for less than $500,000, or 39.1 percent of all the homes sold.

“This is the highest percentage of total sales since the Reserve Bank restrictions on bank mortgage lending were imposed, and indicates a little more flexibility on behalf of the banks towards low deposit borrowers.

“At the end of January we had 3371 properties listed, the lowest number in a January in more than 11 years.

“While this number is relatively healthy compared to many months in 2013, to be this low at the start of a year will inevitably increase pressure on prices over the next three to four months.

“Between now and May is normally one of the two high seasons in a year for house sales, and this strong start to the year suggests that the activity levels of 2013 will remain with us.”

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