Auckland property sales volumes recover

The company recorded 1,249 sales during March which was well up on the 740 sales made in February, but still behind the same period last year. Barfoot & Thompson recorded 1,357 sales in March 2005.

Fourteen percent of all sales were for prices in excess of $1 million – the highest percentage of million dollar sales in the past 12 months.”

While there was plenty of activity at the upper end of the market, the overall average price eased slightly from $464,092 in February to $460,847 in March."Looking back over the first quarter of 2006, its clear the Auckland property market had a slow start to the year. Sales volumes for the first three months of 2006 are down 15% on a year ago and average sale price for the March quarter is down six percent on the December quarter," B&T director Peter Thompson says.

He says the market improved steadily as we moved through the first quarter.

“Our figures show the past couple of weeks have been particularly busy. There are plenty of buyers in the market willing to pay good prices and there is a good selection of listings for them to choose from.”

“In our property management division, where we have more than 7,000 Auckland and Northland properties under management, it was a busy month with 700 fresh lettings during March compared to 683 for the same period last year."

However, average weekly rent eased a little from $350 in February to $339 in March – down two percent on the same period last year.”