Auckland Real Estate Market Continues Steady Run

The top end of the Auckland property market picked up again during October with 15 percent of Barfoot & Thompson’s sales during the month reaching $1 million or more compared to just 11 percent last month.

The latest Barfoot & Thompson figures show the October average price is $428,125. This is virtually unchanged from the average sale price for the three months prior to the one-off dip experienced in September, suggesting that prices are at a plateau.

Director Peter Thompson says, “The market continues to hold a steady course. While the volume of sales has been trending down since the beginning of the year prices are relatively stable.”During October, 911 properties were sold compared to 918 last month and an average for the year to date of 1,048. Forty percent of sales were for more than $500,000, 22 percent were for more than $750,000 and 15 percent were for more than $1 million.

“We have been experiencing the traditional Spring flush of new stock onto the market. Our 59 branches are reporting that many vendors are preferring to list with Barfoot & Thompson in order to support our campaign to raise $300,000 for a new ultrasound machine for Starship Radiology.”

In the rental market, the average weekly rent increased substantially to $341, from $329 last month. However, Mr Thompson says the company’s rental staff report that the figure is the result of a small number of high priced rentals rather than any significant on-going trend.

The number of houses and units let during October was down to 608, from 638 last month. This compares to 648 at the same time a year ago.