Auckland Housing Market Ends Year With Surge

The Auckland property market finished the 2023 year on a 12-month high with prices and sales holding on to the strong gains made since August.

“December’s strong finish to the year has set the market up to have a positive start to 2024,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“The median sales price at $1,045,000 was the highest for any month for 12 months, and 9.5 percent higher than at the year’s low point in July. It was also up 2.7 percent on November’s median price.

“The median sales price over the last four months of 2023 increased by 3.9 percent.

“Sales in December at 830 were excellent for a three-week month, and nearly 60 percent higher than in December the previous year.

“While prices have picked up significantly since August, the rise has been steady and gradual, with buyers being selective and price conscious.

“Sales numbers in the last quarter of the year are far higher than in the same period last year and are similar to trading patterns experienced prior to the big surge in activity in 2020 and 2021.

“The consensus of those in the market is that prices and sales will continue to rise, but at a modest pace.

“The average sales price for the month at $1,191,031 rose 0.4 percent in December, and the rise over the past four months has been 7.1 percent.

“New listings for December were 666, and we started the new year with 4383 properties on our books. Apart from last year, this is the highest number of listings we have started the year on for more than a decade, giving buyers an excellent range of properties to view.

“The average year-on-year declines for both the median and average prices shows that by the end of 2023 the market had recovered a percentage of the losses experienced when the market peaked in November 2021.

“The average 12-month median price for 2023 was $998,500, a decline of 10.6 percent on 2022’s all-time high average of $1,117,000 and a 9.4 decline on that for 2021.

“The 12-month average price performed even better with 2023’s value of $1,104,000, being a decline of 6.1% on 2022’s all-time high average of $1,176,000 and down 4.2 percent on 2021’s price.

“The growing confidence in the metropolitan Auckland market influenced the lifestyle and rural markets in Northland, and the rural areas to the north, west and south of Auckland, with sales in December in these two markets exceeding $56 million, an increase of 69.7 percent on the previous December’s sales figure.

“Rural and lifestyle property to the south of Auckland was in heavy demand, while in the north we undertook a far higher number of appraisals than is normal at year end.”

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