Residential Property Sales Fall But Prices Slow To Retreat

While the number of residential properties sold in Auckland fell significantly in July, the median sales price retreated only slowly.

“Prices are not falling at the same rate as declining sales numbers,” said Peter Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“The median sales price for the month at $1,110,000 has fallen only 2.5 percent on the average median price over the last three months and is still 0.8 percent ahead of the median price in July last year.

“At the same time, the number of sales we made in July at 611 is the lowest number of sales we have made in the month of July in the past 22 years.

“At present, we have prices and sales out of sequence, as vendors and buyers seek to establish where the market is priced.

“Prices are definitely retreating but at the current level, these prices would have been regarded as excellent 12 months ago.

“There has been greater movement across the average price, which at $1,122,575, is down 5.4 percent on the average price for the previous three months.

“The July sales data indicates that the Auckland market is gradually readjusting to a lower sales price point in a controlled manner rather than vendors reacting impulsively to slower sales.

“There is still a strong flow of new property reaching the market and in July we listed 1177 new properties, lower than normal for this time of the year but given slow sales it is giving buyers new options.

“At month end we had 4567 properties on our books.

“The rural and lifestyle sectors did not experience the same downward pressure of sales as the residential market and sales in excess of $78 million.”

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