Auckland market 'totally different'

Spring has not yet sprung for Auckland’s housing market, new data from Barfoot & Thompson confirms.

The Auckland real estate agency said the combination of tighter mortgage lending restrictions and the perception that property was fully-priced were slowing housing activity.

“In September new listings were down, and sales numbers and prices were restrained,” said Peter Thompson, managing director.

“With the arrival of spring, housing activity normally lifts, but it has not been the case this year. Rather the market continued the trend which first showed in July of prices increasing at a much slower rate that in the past two to three years. While in September the average price increased, compared to August, the median price actually stayed constant,” he said.

The agency’s average sales price was $919,849, 1.5% up on August but up only 2.9% on the previous three months.

The median price, $850,000 was the same as August and up only 0.8% over the previous three months.

“Compared to what was happening to prices last September the Auckland housing market is subdued and we are now looking at a totally different market to 12 months ago. Sales for September at 1051 were up 4.8% on those for August but down 2% on the average for the previous three months,” Thompson said.

“New listings at 1536 are down 10% on those for August, and are down 6% on those for the previous three months and down 20.8% on September last year.”

At the end of the month, the agency had 3060 properties on its books, down 2.9% on August.

High end sales were unaffected by the more restrained market. The agency reported 403 properties, or 38.3%  of properties sold, going for more than $1 million.