Auckland House Sales Leap Into Life, But Prices Remain Stable

The number of homes sold in Auckland in February leapt to their highest number for a
February in five years, but price rises for the month were modest.

“It was an active month for sales, with 764 homes being sold, but this demand did not
translate into major price increases,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“At $536,069 the average price for the month was up 1.2 percent on that for January, and up
2.7 percent for that in February last year.

“Prices are edging up, but only at a modest rate.

“It is also a normal part of the regular market fluctuation for prices to increase in February
over those for January.

“The market segment where the most noticeable change took place was in $1 million plus
housing.

“In February we sold 41 homes for in excess of $1 million, compared to 29 in February last
year, and this followed on the sale in January of 40 $1 million homes, nearly double
the number for the previous January.

“You have to go back to the peak selling year of 2007 to find more $1 million homes sold in
the first two months of a new year.”

Mr Thompson said that the number of homes sold in February was up 11.9 percent
on January’s number and just under 24 percent higher than in February last year.

“The number of new homes listed in February was 1552.

“While this was up 50.5 percent on those for January and contributed to sales numbers
increasing, the number was in line with the number of new listings in February last year.

“The number of homes listed was not out of the ordinary for a February.

“At the end of February we had 4917 properties on our books, the lowest number of listings
we have had at this time of the year for five years.

“Lack of listings is still holding the market back from being more active.”