Listings lag despite price rise: Barfoot

The firm said the average price of homes sold in the city last year was $584,715. That is $41,590 more than in 2011.

Managing director Peter Thompson said while it was the highest increase in five years, it followed three years where price increases had not kept pace with inflation.

There were 920 sales in December, with an average price of $624,015. That was the highest number of sales in the month in eight years.

November recorded the all-time record average price of $627,721.

There’s no sign of a let up in the shortage of properties for sale. The 697 new listings in December was the lowest number recorded for a December month in 10 years, and down 17.6% on December 2011.

Thompson said: “It was also the first time in the past decade when we listed fewer homes in a month than the number of homes sold (920).”

Just under 10% of the homes sold by the agency in December went for more than $1 million. But 42.8% sold for less than $500,000.

Thompson said it was expected that the shortage of properties for sale and low interest rates would keep the market strong through the first half of 2013.