Greater Buyer Choice Attracts Buyers To Auckland Housing

Vendors returned to the Auckland residential market in strength in October, setting the scene for an active selling season in the run in to year end.

“A feature of the market since March has been the modest number of properties being listed, and by the start of October the number of properties on the market was at its lowest for more than two years,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“In October that changed, with new listings being a third higher than in September, and more than 40 percent higher than the average for the previous three months.

“It brought committed buyers back into the market with sales for the month increasing to 824, up 6.9 percent on those for the previous month and 3.1 percent higher than the average for the previous three months.

“Prices also edged up with the average price at $939,132 increasing by 1.6 percent on the average for the previous three months and the median price at $845,000 increasing by 2.2 percent on the average for the previous three months.

“It was a smooth, steady acceleration as we emerged from the winter selling season and has set the platform for a positive run in to the Christmas/New Year break.

“What October’s data signals is both vendors and buyers are coming to accept that the market conditions that have prevailed for more than two years now are the new norm, and that there is no big price increases or major price declines on the horizon.

“There is growing acceptance that today’s prices represent where the market is valuing property, and that’s where it’s likely to stay.

“Some 30 percent of all the homes we sold in October were for in excess of $1 million, with 9.5 percent of that number being for in excess of $2 million.

“Top end values are not proving a barrier to sales.

“At month end we had 3820 properties on our books, the highest for three months but still more than 20 percent lower than we had at the same time last year.

“The Lifestyle and Rural sectors of the market experienced the highest number of listings in a month for the previous six months, releasing the brake that had been put on the sector by the small number of listings available.

“In the north Kerikeri was our busiest listing agency and in the south it was Pukekohe.”

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