Sales up for top-end houses

Kiwis tired of renting and waiting for the housing market to bottom out coupled with good interest rates are among reasons for increased sales of properties over $1 million in the past month.

Barfoot and Thompson sold 57 houses in the $1m-plus bracket last month, the highest number sold in that range in 18 months.

Harcourts also recorded buoyant sales for May, with sales volumes 35 per cent higher than the same time last year. Chief executive Bryan Thomson said the market had started to move at the bottom, which had caused a flow-on effect right across the price ranges including the $1m-plus range.

Vendors putting their houses on the market at "yesterday's prices" had little chance of selling. But homeowners who understood the market and were prepared to list their homes at today's prices would attract good interest because of the lack of housing stock available.

Barfoots' managing director Peter Thompson said there had been a noticeable increase in demand for homes in the more established suburbs.

Karin Cooper, Barfoots' top residential salesperson last year, said many of her clients were sick of renting. "New Zealanders like to own their own homes."

Buyers had "heard all the doom and gloom," had waited and watched the market and were now ready to buy, she said. Clients she had seen a year ago had decided to wait but were now house hunting. At the same time vendors were becoming more "realistic" with their pricing.

The past fortnight has been busy for Cooper after selling a Mission Bay home for just over $1m, a Glendowie townhouse for $1.28m, a new St Heliers townhouse for $1.335m, a character home in Glendowie for $1.206m and a large, new Mission Bay home for $2.82m.

Included in those looking were expats coming home from Europe and English immigrants, she said.

Thompson said many of the buyers were business people who had started to house hunt after the holiday period. Once the warmer weather arrived, properties in the higher price bracket with swimming pools became popular. The sales were across the eastern suburbs of Mission Bay, Kohimarama and St Heliers, as well as Herne Bay, Ponsonby, Parnell, Devonport, Takapuna, Mt Eden and Whitford. Included in the sales were a property which sold for more than $5m and another for more than $3m, he said.

Jim Mays of Precision Real Estate on the North Shore sold a $2m house last week and has "serious interest" in two other properties in the $1m to $1.5m range.

"There is plenty of activity. They may take a little longer to sell, but they'll sell."

Rachel Dovey, residential manager for Bayleys city branch, said 69 per cent of 16 properties put up for auction on a "gala night' last month had sold.

Included were a Parnell home that sold for more than $3m and a Herne Bay property, which sold for more than $2m.

Buyers had been "waiting and waiting" for the market to bottom, she said.