Price retreat as sales escalate

Barfoot & Thompson’s latest Property Market Report shows last month the median price, which was $1,125,000 in May. This is 4.9% higher than in May last year, 1.4% lower than April and 2% lower than the median price over the previous three months.

The average selling price was $1,189,779. Compared to the same month last year this is an increase of 6.8%, but when compared to April’s average it was down 1.9% and 2% lower than the average for the previous three months.

“Sales prices are definitely starting to fall, but not dramatically,” says Peter Thompson, Barfoot & Thompson managing director.

“Last month’s sales results show vendors are accepting that if they want to sell, they must reappraise their price expectations while buyers are realising that prices are not falling off the cliff edge.

“May’s average price is 7% lower than the peak average sales price in November last year of $1,278,647 and the median price is 9.3% percent lower than at its peak of $1,240,000.

The realisation by buyers that prices are edging lower rather than falling rapidly resulted in sales numbers for the month reaching 782, up more than a quarter on those for April, says Thompson.

However, turnover remained lower than is normal for May.

New listings at 1,416 were in line with expectations and at month end Barfoot & Thompson had 4,701 homes on its books. While this is 50.6% higher than in May last year it is 3% lower than April.

“The combination of solid new listings, modest sales and lower month end listings indicates some vendors not able to achieve the price they want for their property have delisted rather than lower their asking price,” says Thompson.

Of the homes sold, 15.2% percent were for less than $750,000 while 9.2% were sold for more than $2 million and 2.7% for more than $3 million.

Rural and lifestyle sales also increased on that for April, with property sales numbers increasing two thirds to 40, for a combined sales value of $86.2 million.

Top end bare land and lifestyle building platforms have been attracting keen buyer interest.