Auckland House Prices Set New Record Average At $618,707

In October the average price of a home in Auckland broke through the $600,000 ceiling for the first time, setting a record average price of $618,707.

This is an increase of nearly $33,000 or 5.6 percent on last month’s average price, and is 4.4 percent higher than the previous record price of $592,396, recorded in August this year,” said Wendy Alexander, Chief Executive Officer of Barfoot & Thompson.

“October was one of the most active selling months we have ever experienced.

“It was a month when buyer demand finally broke through the constraints buyers were imposing on themselves that had seen the average price move in a $10,000 band between $582,000 and $592,000 for five months.

“We experienced extremely competitive bidding at auctions, and a very high success rate under the auction hammer.

“It was a case of demand far out stripping the number of properties up for sale.

“Sales for the month at 1081 were up 11.6 percent on those for September and up 48.7 percent on those for the same month last year.

“Even though we listed 1645 new homes during the month, our highest number of new listings in 31 months, and the highest in an October for three years, it was insufficient to meet buyer demand, particularly at the top end of the market.

“Sales values in excess of $1 million were a feature of October’s activity, and we sold 119 homes in this price category. This was the highest number of million dollar homes we have ever sold in one month.

“For the first 10 months of the year we have sold 763 homes for more than $1 million, which is 64.4 percent higher than for the same period last year.

“The only time we have ever sold more than 100 homes for in excess of one million dollars in a month previously was at the height of 2007’s sales activity, and at that time the average monthly selling price was $564,000.

“At the end of the month we had 3835 properties on our books, our third lowest number in more than a decade.”