Real estate agents cry for more listings

Despite Barfoot & Thompson signing up more than 1,400 new listings during January – significantly more than for the same month in the previous two years – director Peter Thompson says there is still an overall shortage of listings.

“We ended the month with 4,150 exclusive property listings which is low by historical standards and means buyers may find it hard to find a property to suit their needs at a price they can afford,” Thompson says.  

“For vendors, it means this is an excellent time to consider listing a property for sale as there is good buyer interest that is not being satisfied.”

Latest sales figures show a high level of activity in the Auckland property market during January. The company made more than 1,000 sales for the month compared to around 800 for the same month in the previous two years.  

Thompson says most of the activity centred on the middle to lower end of the Auckland property market. “Transactions valued at $500,000 or less accounted for the majority of our activity. This, coupled with the fact we settled a large parcel of relatively low value sections during January, had the effect of lowering the average monthly sale price.”

The average sale price for January was $475,461, down 9% on the December average of $523,793.