Auckland house sales activity still subdued in May

By Paul McBeth

June 6 (BusinessDesk) - Auckland house sales were down by about a fifth in May from a year earlier but prices were largely flat, in what the city's biggest realtor described as a subdued market.

Barfoot & Thompson said 821 houses were sold in the country's biggest city last month, down from 1,027 a year earlier. The median sale price increased 3.7 percent to $850,000.

"For the third consecutive month the Auckland residential property market registered limited change in activity with May sales numbers remaining subdued and prices not moving," it said.

Auckland's housing market has been in the doldrums over the past year as efforts by legislators to curb demand at a time when interest rates remain at record low levels took a while to take effect. Quotable Value data today showed falling Auckland house prices were depressing the national average.

Managing director Peter Thompson said Auckland's market appears to have settled below the five-year peak sales years of 2012 to 2016.

"The market remains active because buyers are there and there is a good number of properties for sale," he said.

"Sales numbers for the month at 821 showed a good increase on April’s 667 but were down significantly on last May’s 1027."

Barfoot's new listings dropped 19 percent to 1,186 in May from a year earlier. The realtor had 4,319 properties on its books at the end of the month, down 5.5 percent from a year earlier, and 4,684 at the end of April.

Of the 821 sales, about a third were for $1 million or more, while 9.4 percent were below $500,000, Barfoot said.

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