Rebalancing period over: Barfoot

The city’s biggest real estate agency reported that the average sales price in the month was $644,737, an increase of less than $2000 on the April price and $1500 below March’s record. The median sales price was $570,000, $4000 up on April and $10,000 down on March.

Managing director Peter Thompson said the upward price momentum seen since the end of 2012 seemed to have stalled.

“While realistically priced properties still continue to sell almost as soon as they come on the market, there is resistance to going above current values. Buyers can see value in the prices at which properties are currently changing hands, but they are not adopting a ‘buy at any price’ attitude.”

He said Auckland’s property market had come out the other side of a period of price rebalancing.

“May’s average price is 10.7% ahead of the average price in May last year. While some properties sell well above their CVs, they are the exception and there are often valid reasons for the price differential.”

The agency sold 1284 properties in May, 20.9% more than in April and 10.2% more than in May last year.

Thompson said: “New listings at 1315 were our lowest for four months, and down 14.2 percent on those for April. At the end of May we had 3034 properties on our books, our lowest number in more than a decade. At current sales levels that represents only eight to nine weeks of stock.”

He said there were too many people chasing too few properties.