Auckland Residential Property Market Makes Slow Start To Year

The Auckland residential property market experienced its lowest month’s trading in a January for more than 20 years.

“January’s trading, when we sold 431 residential properties, has to be one of the slowest in the past two decades,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“January is invariably the lowest sales month of the year, but this year stands out for its lack of buyer commitment.

“There is a good level of buyer interest in the marketplace with our agents reporting that attendances at open homes throughout January were higher than they were in the last quarter of last year.

“However, buyers continued to sit on the sideline in January, presumably either waiting for prices to fall even more, are cautious about mortgage interest rates or are finding obtaining financing too challenging.

“The level of interest being shown could indicate that buyers may be anticipating the bottom of the price cycle is not far off.

“In the last quarter of last year, the median sales price stabilised around $1,075,000. However, in January the median price dipped again by 6.3 percent, and it now sits at $1,000,000.

“This price level is down 15.3 percent on where it was at the same time last year and is where the median price was at in early 2021.

“Vendors are still listing property for sale, and in January we listed 920 properties. This number is solid for the first month of the year but is down about a quarter on where it has been for the past 3 months.

“The number of properties on our books at month end was 4747, a quarter higher than the number at the same time last year.

“As is normal for the first month of the year, buyers in the $2 million and over price categories were lightly represented in the market, and only 30 properties were sold in these price categories. High-end buyers’ presence in the market tends to become more prominent from March onwards.

“The rural and lifestyle markets experienced the same trading challenges as urban areas during January, with vendors and buyers having different views on value.

“Sales in these two markets for the month at $23.6 million was our lowest sales month by dollar value in 28 months.”

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