Auckland vendors head to market: Barfoot

Managing director Peter Thompson said there were 1752 new listings for the month.

Compared to January, new listings were up by 21.7 per cent. That was only the third time in five years that new listings had reached 1700 in a month.

Thompson said: “The greater number of properties for sale took some of the pressure off prices, and the average sale price in February was $604,164, an increase of 0.6 per cent on the average achieved in January.

“Sales numbers at 892 were up 8.8 per cent on those for January, and up 16.8 per cent on February last year. The combination of new listing and sales numbers contributed to an extremely active market, but with prices staying constant.”

Realestate.co.nz reported that new listings were still down 2% on the same month the year before.

But at the end of the month Barfoot and Thompson had 3988 properties on its books, the highest at a month’s end for eight months.

During February, the agency sold 76 homes for more than $1 million, bringing the number sold in this price category for the first two months of the year to 144 - 77.8 per cent more than in the same two months of 2012.

Comments from our readers

On 5 March 2013 at 2:24 pm Jimmy said:

Its hardly surprising the number of listings available has shot up - simple evidence of this is how 'thick' the latest property press is. A quick flick through the property press will also show that the vast majority of properties are up for auction - a sure sign agents believe demand is high - but also frustrating for both first home buyers and investors. More and more auctions are starting to pass in because of an excessive reserve price that many are now just not willing to pay. There are also a significant number of "high value" properties (anything significantly above Aucklands $600k average) for sale. The majority of first home buyers won't even be in the half mil+ price range, and neither will most investors (developers perhaps - but then how lucrative is development with council regulation and contribution costs?) Additionally, the quality of the lower value and affordable investment properties is becoming a rarity, daily I see traders cutting costs to maximise revenue leaving many poorly renovated properties around with paint hiding a maintenance nightmare underneath - so do your homework and don't buy someone elses problem. I certainly will be one who continues to tread with care, paying careful attention not to get sucked into real estate agent hype.

Auckland vendors head to market: Barfoot

Auckland house prices did not shoot up in February because there were many more new listings on the market compared to the month before, Barfoot and Thompson says.

Tuesday, March 5th 2013, 12:00AM 1 Comment

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