The coming of winter typically brings on the doldrums in the New Zealand property market, but this year the opposite is happening as prices and sales soar. Real estate agents Barfoot & Thompson report that sales are at their highest since May 2003, and up 55.3% percent on the previous month. Experts attribute the accelerated market action to favorable lending characteristics, unseasonably warm weather and a wealth of new listings. Despite the increase in new listings, however, a persistent shortage of available housing is also helping drive up the numbers. For more on this continue reading the following article from Property Wire.
Average property prices and sales in Auckland are soaring with the city’s real estate market seeing its busiest May for nine years.
The market has not slowed down as it normally does as winter approaches, according to leading New Zealand estate agents Barfoot & Thompson.
Sales for the month were the highest in a May since 2003, and were 31% higher than for the same month last year, and up 55.3% on the previous month. Listings were up 12.2% compared with April and up 21.6% on a year ago.
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‘A significant number of new listings, keenly priced mortgage lending rates, fine weather and a large pool of potential buyers all played their part in the level of activity achieved,’ said managing director Peter Thompson.
‘It was our highest number of new listings in a May for five years but even this number of new listing was insufficient to meet buyer demand, and at the end of the month we had only 4,356 homes on our books, the lowest number in five years. We ended the month with 256 fewer homes on our books than we started with,’ he explained.
‘The low number of new homes built in past years, coupled with Auckland’s population growth, has created a situation where supply remains the issue, and this is reflected in the prices being obtained,’ he added.
An average price of $582,000 is the highest average price the real estate firm has have ever recorded.
‘In 2011 the average price achieved was $543,000, and this May’s average price is 7.2% above that,’ Thompson pointed out.
The firm sold 91 homes valued at more than $1 million in May, while a little more than half of all the homes sold were valued at less than $500,000.
‘The shortage of available housing is being felt right across Auckland, and in all price ranges,’ added Thompson.
This article was republished with permission from Property Wire.
