Aucklanders list homes faster than buyers can snap them up

Thursday, 4 April 2024

Auckland real estate company Barfoot & Thompson says it sold more than 1000 homes in March.

It was the first time the company had recorded more than 1000 sales in Auckland in a month in the past two years.

The average sale price for the 1061 homes it sold was $1.23 million, marginally lower than the average sale price in March 2022.

The median price of homes it sold was $1.05m, also lower than the median sale price of $1.18m a year earlier.

Peter Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson, said both the median and average sales prices moved above the $1m mark in March. In February, the median sale price had been $966,500.

He said both buyer and seller confidence had now returned to the Auckland housing market.

Kelvin Davidson, senior economist at CoreLogic, said confidence was certainly better than in March last year, but he said: “It was pretty darn low.”

Economists’ consensus forecasts were for price growth of about 5% this year nationally, Davidson said.

And while that was low compared to the massive price spike in 2021 and 2022 prompted by low interest rates, he said it was quite usual in some points in New Zealand’s history.

Some people were speculating that the Government restoring tax deductions for landlords would bring investors back to the market, he said.

But with the number of new listings rising faster than homes were selling, it felt like it remained a buyers’s market, rather than a seller’s market, he said.

Barfoot & Thompson had 5741 properties listed for sale, which was more than at the end of March in the past seven years.

The total value of home sales by the company in March remained well below the $2 billion level it recorded in March 2021, when mortgage rates were nearing their lowest point.

In March this year, the 1061 homes Barfoot & Thompson’s sold at an average of $1.23m added up to sales of just over $1.3b.

In March 2022, total March sales for the company were $1.37b.

“New listings continued to reach the market at strong levels, with 1952 listings in the month, and at month end we had 5741 properties on our books,” he said.

“While we sold homes at the equivalent of 34 a day, the level of new listings outpaced sales and the choice of homes for sale in Auckland remains the highest it has been for more than a decade.”

The average sale price in March recorded by Barfoot & Thompson was dragged up by the sale of many homes at the luxury end of the market.

“A feature of March’s sales was the return in strength of buyers at the top end of the market, with 89 homes being sold for more than $2m and of these, 27 sold for more than $3m,” he said.

Property data company CoreLogic said March had seen a modest recovery in house prices across the country, which were up 0.4% in Auckland, and Davidson said a good flow of fresh properties came to market, raising the choice for buyers.

“Market performance was pretty variable across Auckland in March, with Rodney and North Shore both up by around 2%, but then a large gap back to broad stability in Auckland City, Waitakere, and Franklin, while values in Papakura and Manukau declined over the month,” he said.

Prices remained below their peaks by between 10% and 17.5% depending on location.

“Auckland's market is often seen as a bellwether for national trends, and although I'm a little sceptical of the degree to which patterns in our largest city genuinely 'filter out' to the regions, there's no doubt Auckland is currently demonstrating what's being seen elsewhere – an 'up and down' recovery,” Davidson said.