Auckland house prices pick up

Barfoot chief says volumes down a third from 12 months ago

The politically charged housing sector has got a minor injection of confidence as Auckland prices achieved by the city’s largest agency picked up by about $10,000 in the past month.

Postal voting is to open soon and with just 17 days to the election, the agency with more than 40 per cent of the city’s market said average prices had recovered somewhat to $918,926 in August, up from July’s $908,319. The median also picked up from $810,000 in July to $820,000 last month.

However, Barfoot & Thompson said August activity was reflective of the past six months: lower sales volumes and prices remaining firm.

Peter Thompson, Barfoot managing director, said volumes were down a third from 12 months ago and buyers and sellers who accepted the new reality were achieving the outcomes wanted.

Unconditional $500,000-plus sales accounted for 80.8 per cent of August’s turnover and there were 276 sales over $1 million, and 39 sales over $2m, Barfoot said.

But volumes remain low at 777 sales last month, up only marginally on July’s 747 sales. In June, Barfoot agents sold 855 properties.

“In spite of claims that there are few homes for sale in Auckland at under $500,000, in August we sold 90 properties in this price category, representing 11.6 per cent of all sales for the month,” Thompson said.

“At the same time, high-end properties continued to sell well with 276 sales, or 35.5 per cent of all sales, being for in excess of $1 million.

“There was no shortage of new property reaching the market, with 1260 new listings in August. While down 15.5 per cent on the average number for the previous three months, this is not unexpected one month out from a general election.

“At month end we had 3993 properties on our books, the lowest number for the past six months but still more than a quarter higher than at this time last year.

“It means we enter the general election month with the highest number of properties at the start of a September for six years. It provides a good platform for the market to operate from once the election is behind us.”

On Friday, Quotable Value blamed winter, bank lending limits, the election and China’s crackdown on capital flows for national house value growth being the slowest in five years and Auckland values hitting their most glacial pace since 2011.

The QV House Price Index out on September 1 showed that nationally values only rose 4.8 per cent over the past year to hit $641,648. Auckland values only rose 2.8 per cent to an average $1,041,957, the slowest growth rate in six years.

Real Estate Institute data last month showed house sales volumes had collapsed by a quarter in the past year, prompting a call for the Reserve Bank’s lending restrictions to be reviewed for first-time buyers.

Statistics from realestate.co.nz today shows that the number of new property listings in August fell 17.5 per cent nationally compared to the same month last year.

All regions were impacted except for Hawke’s Bay and the West Coast which both increased.

The average asking price nationally was $616,038, down 1.7 per cent compared to the previous month.

Realestate.co.nz spokeswoman Vanessa Taylor said: “With inventory and demand both low, we are currently in a relatively stable price environment.”