Harcourts reports good sales volume, listings lift

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Harcourts reports good sales volume, lift in listings

13 August 2009: The latest statistics from New Zealand’s largest real estate group, Harcourts, show the amount of property being sold continues to be well up on last year while the volume of new listings has moved to a new level.

Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson says last month in Harcourts’ five regions there was an average of 35.2% more written sales than in July 2008, ranging from a 68% lift in the group’s Central region to an 8% increase in the group’s South Island Provincial Region.

Commenting in the latest Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter he says the July national average increase in written sales is consistent with what Harcourts has been reporting since March.

“The new listing statistics though are quite different from what we have seen recently, with more sellers looking to take advantage of the current strong buyer demand rather than waiting for spring when history suggests they are likely to face more competition,” Mr Thomson says.

“Last month saw a pleasing increase in the amount of exclusive Harcourts listings when compared with the previous month and with July 2008 too, but perhaps the most graphic display of sellers’ reaction to the current market is the significant lift in auction and tender campaigns secured in July 2009 compared to July 2008 and the solid growth in these listings on last month too.

“This clearly shows that more sellers are looking to maximise their price through competition while avoiding driving buyers away through an over-optimistic fixed priced strategy,” he says.

“With such a high volume of properties being auctioned it means buyers need to make sure they understand the process and are in a position to bid and buy otherwise they risk missing out on some stunning property.”

Mr Thomson says while hindsight is the only 100% accurate judge, Harcourts believes that with the relatively stable marketplace, interest rates remaining attractive and a limited amount of housing stock for sale today’s solid real estate market should continue into Spring.

“As always quality property in more sought after locations will continue to generate the most competition, while both sellers and buyers who have overly optimistic price expectations will remain frustrated,” he says.

For more information see Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter (attached).

ENDS

MarketWatch_August09.pdf

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