Spring adds bounce to Auckland housing market

The average house price in August rose 1.5% from the same month last year, to $530,023.

B&T, the city's largest real estate firm, sold 830 properties last month, a 6.5% increase on July's sales numbers and a whopping 65.3% increase on August last year.

"Keen interest has returned to the Auckland market," says B&T managing director Peter Thompson. "Buyers feel prices are attractive, they can afford the repayments and are comfortable about their future job prospects."

Thompson believes market activity is being lifted across all geographic areas due to buyers remaining "restrained and selective" but are still committing to completing transactions.

He also believes that the increase in average sales price of 4.9% in August over that in July was more "a timing adjustment than related to values".

A factor preventing the Auckland housing market returning to a stable balance is the low number of properties for sale.

At the start of September, Thompson says the company had only 5,212 properties on its books, the lowest number for 19 months.

"Given the current high sales activity, we would anticipate more sellers will now enter the market."

Harcourts, the country's largest real estate company, said earlier in the week that sellers should make the most of the lower volume of listings before the balance returns to the market.

"Many would-be sellers were advised six months to a year ago that they should hold onto their homes and ride out the global financial crisis if they could," Harcourts International managing director Mike Green said.

"Rather quickly the situation has changed and the fewer properties that are on the market are often receiving multiple offers, with some selling over the asking price."

But sellers will have to move quickly, as spring is traditionally the start of an upward swing in listings and activity, which will have a knock-on effect for sales prices.