Auckland sales slip almost 40% in April

Managing director Peter Thompson said that the average sales price for April was $568,018, just $3,000 below the March average.

"It shows that March's big jump in prices over those for February was no one-off spike," he said.

"What did change between April and March was the number of homes sold. Sales numbers fell back to 750. This is consistent with the number of homes sold in April last year, but is 39.8% lower than in March."

Thompson said new listings were solid at 1,266, though 17.6% lower than March.

"At month's end we had only 4,621 homes on our books throughout Auckland, the lowest number in four months and 17.2% lower than at the same time last year."

He said the new listings figures underlined the lack of choice available to potential home buyers, and that March and April usually represent the high point of summer sales activity.

"Prices and sales volume tend to ease as we move deeper into autumn," he said.

"Given the level of buyer interest in the market and the low level of choice, prices are likely to hold firm through May."

Thompson said that for three of the four months of 2012, the average sales price for the month has been higher than the corresponding month in 2011.

The price increase has ranged from 4.2% in April to 2.7% in January and February. In March, the corresponding price difference was a fall of 1.7%.

However, he said prices were not "running hot" and that above valuation prices being achieved "were the exception and not the norm."