The average sales price in August was $647,647, more than $6,700 lower than in July and more than $2,200 lower than in June, according to the date from Barfoot & Thompson.
‘For the past five months the average sales price for Auckland houses has remained constant. After a rapid increase in the first quarter of the year, prices have settled down, and there has been no upward pressure on prices for the past two months,’ said the firm’s managing director Peter Thompson.
This is confirmed by August’s median house price, which at $561,500 is down 4% on the median price for July, and down 4.8% on June’s median price.
‘August’s median price is right in line with that for November last year, suggesting prices have remained stable for nine months. What did change in August was that there was greater choice for buyers than there has been for some months,’ explained Thompson.
The data also shows that new listings were up 4.5% in August compared with July, the second highest in a month so far this year and 20.7% higher than the same time last year. Sales in August were also strong, up 5.9% on those for July and 18.1% higher than in August last year.
‘It added up to an extremely active market, but with prices restrained,. At month’s end we had 2,999 properties on our books. While this is relatively low, it was the highest number for three months,’ added Thompson.
A feature of August’s trading was a drop in the number of homes that sold for in excess of $1 million at 118 homes, well down from July’s 152 and the 144 in both May and June. The firm found that there was a far greater focus on the under $500,000 market, with 523, or 43.6% of all sales, being in this segment.
