Fine Summer Weather Impacts Auckland Property Market

The Auckland property market made its traditional slow start to the new calendar year with prices and sales edging below where they were tracking in the final quarter of last year.

“In line with what has occurred for the past four years, January sales numbers and prices fell below those for December,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“It’s a feature of the holiday season, especially when the Auckland region has outstanding weather over the holiday period.

“Sales numbers are normally their lowest for any month of the year in January and it is also the month when only a small number of homes selling in the $2 million plus price segment occur.

“This year was no exception, with only 25 homes selling at the top end of the market, representing only five percent of the number of properties sold.

“This is the lowest number of homes in the $2 million plus market we have sold in the month of January in four years.

“The median price for the month at $966,500 was down 7.1 percent on December’s median price and the average price at $1,083,487, was down 8.3 percent.

“Total sales for the month at 504 were down 41.1 percent on December’s number.

“On the positive side, new listings for the month at 1221 were up 83.3 percent on those for December and 32.7 percent ahead of those at the same time last year.

“Vendors are confident that the market has found its feet and are strongly re-entering the market.

“At the same time, anecdotal comments from agents suggest there is a solid group of buyers currently sitting on the sidelines waiting for the Government to implement its announced modifications to property investment rules.

“Once implemented, those changes have the potential to significantly increase buyer demand.

“Currently, with 4618 properties on our books, buyers are being offered a wide range of options.

“The rural and lifestyle markets to the north, south and west of Auckland made a strong start to the year with a significant number of deals that commenced pre the holiday break being finalised in January.

“Sales in the rural and lifestyle markets in January at $38.8 million were higher than those achieved in 6 out of the last 12 months.”

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