Upward price momentum stalls: Barfoot and Thompson

It had risen month-on-month for three months to an all-time high of $645,928 in March. Last month, it dropped back to $643,089.

Peter Thompson, Barfoot and Thompson’s managing director, said: “April’s decline in the average sales price confirms that buyers are taking a measured approach to what they are prepared to pay for property.  Buyers are only prepared to pay what they believe to be fair value, and they have not adopted a buy-at-any-price approach.”

The median sales price of $566,000 was down 2.4% on March’s median.

Thompson said there were 1532 new properties listed in April, up 3.8% on March and up 21% on April last year.

“This created a modest increase in the choice of properties for sale over those in March, but it was not a major contributor to the downward pressure on prices.  In historical terms, choice is still severely limited and it was price that was more the deciding factor in April.”

The 1062 properties sold was the highest number in an April for 11 years, but still down by more than a quarter on March’s 1430.

About  40% of all the sales in April were for under $500,000, up from 38.5% in March. There were 103 properties sold for more than $1 million.