Million dollar sales up

Sales of Auckland homes worth $1 million or more showed a "remarkable" 72% jump in the three months ended April compared with the corresponding period last year, according to Bayleys Research.

Real Estate Institute figures show there were 131 sales of homes for $1 million or more were made.

"The latest sales volumes represent a phenomenal increase from the last three years of the 1990s when $1 million-plus sales numbered consistently around only 40 per quarter," Bayleys says.

Nevertheless, $1 million-plus sales still accounted for just 2% of all residential sales in Auckland in the April quarter. By value, they represented 7% of the market.

About 85% of Auckland sales in the quarter were of houses worth $470,000 or less.

Bayleys research manager Gerald Rundle says his feeling is that rather than being directly related to interest rates, activity at the top end of the housing market is related to how well businesses are performing.

Bayleys notes $1 million-plus sales are dominated by a relatively small number of Auckland suburbs. About 73% of these sales were in the eastern suburbs, city, Point Chevalier, Milford and Takapuna areas.

Bayleys also finds some evidence of house price inflation at the top end of the Auckland market. The median price of the top 15% of sales by price in the April quarter rose 11.6% to $625,000 compared with $560,000 in both the January quarter and the same quarter last year.

In the top 15% price bracket, the number of transactions rose 12.7% from 579 in the January quarter to 879 in the April quarter. This was up 46.6% from the April 2001 quarter and 39% higher than the April 2000 quarter.

Bayleys says the number of days properties are on the market before selling is down to 61 from a peak of 73 in January 2001.