Market recovers from election uncertainty

The real estate agency said new listings in October were up by a third compared to the previous month.

At the end of the month, the number of properties on Barfoot and Thompson's books was the highest in three months.

Managing director Peter Thompson said the 939 sales in October were in line with September, as was the average selling price of $736,238.

But he said momentum had returned during the month.

“It always takes some months for the property market to regain lost momentum when interrupted by a lack of certainty. This trend shows up in our weekly sales figures. During the first week of October we sold 258 properties, and in the fourth it climbed to 283. In the first week of November we anticipate completing close to 300 sales and this, combined with the large number of new listings in October, indicates we will see a significant pick-up in sales numbers in November," Thompson said.

He said the 1765 new listings in October eased the shortage of properties for sale.

“While the average selling price in October was within $2600 of that for the previous month, the median price increased by $20,000 to $655,000, the highest median price ever. From our experience the median price shows greater variation on a monthly basis that the average price. A significant contributor to the average sales price remaining at all-time highs is continuing interest in high-end valued properties, which were largely unaffected throughout the election period, and in October we sold 169 properties for in excess of $1 million."

Properties selling for more than $1 million made up 18% of the agency's sales in October.

A quarter of properties sold for under $500,000.