Some 1,752 new listings, an increase of 21.7% compared to January, contributed to there being greater choice than there has been since November last year, according to Peter Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson.
He pointed out that this is only the third time in five years that new listings have reached 1,700 in a month and the greater number of properties for sale took some of the pressure off prices.
The average sale price in February was $604,164, an increase of 0.6% on the average achieved in January. Sales numbers at 892 were up 8.8% on those for January, and up 16.8% for those on February last year.
‘The combination of new listing and sales numbers contributed to an extremely active market, but with prices staying constant,’ said Thompson.
At the end of the month Barfoot & Thompson had 3,988 properties on its books, the highest at a month’s end for eight months.
‘While choice is at its highest since June 2012 it may be a short term situation, as the number of properties for sale still remains at the lower end of the scale over the past decade,. A significant number of new builds have to reach the market before pressure will ease,’ explained Thompson.
During the month Barfoot & Thompson sold 76 homes for in excess of $1 million, bringing the number sold in this price category for the first two months of the year to 144, some 77.8% more than in the same two months of 2012.
Of the total homes sold, 405 or 45.4% of all the homes sold in February went for under $500,000.
