The average price reached $645,928 last month, according to figures from Barfoot & Thompson, the highest ever average price. It exceeds last month’s average price by 6.9% and the previous highest average price of $627,721 achieved in November last year by 2.9%.
‘While we expected to see a major lift in the average price between February and March, as it is a trend evident in our sales statistics since 2010, the most critical factor in the price increase was undoubtedly the number of homes that sold for in excess of $1 million,’ said Peter Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson.
The data reveals that 186, or 13% of all the firm’s sales were for more than $1 million, whereas the percentage last year was 8.5%.
‘This is the highest number of sales in excess of $1 million we have ever sold in a month, with the highest concentration of sales being in the eastern and central Auckland areas, and along the North Shore beach suburbs,’ explained Thompson.
He pointed out that a higher than normal number of sales at the top end of the market does have a significant impact on the average price, and the same influence was felt when the previous highest average price was established in November, when 146 homes were sold for more than $1 million.
‘We experienced an exceptional month’s trading in March, and we sold a total of 1,430 homes in the month, our highest number in a month for nearly 10 years. While there was a great deal of focus on top end homes, market activity was also strong in the under $500,000 price category where we sold a total of 550 homes, making up 38.5% of total sales,’ said Thompson.
New listings during March at 1,476 were solid, but down 15.8% on those in February and down 4% on those for last March.
‘The level of new listings combined with high March sales saw available listings at month end at 3721, down 6.7% on those at the end of February and down 22% on those last March,’ explained Thompson.
‘It is the second lowest number of listings at a month’s end for more than a decade, and is yet another sign of the acute shortage of property available for sale in Auckland,’ he added.
