Auckland house sales at 20-month low, says Barfoots

Photo / Herald on Sunday

Real estate company Barfoot & Thompson is reporting only 561 house sales in Auckland in October, the lowest level in 20 months.

Despite the fall in sales, price levels are holding up, and new listings picked up in the second half of the month.

The average price of $524,004 was in line with the September price, up on the August price near $511,000, and 3.8 per cent down on October last year.

Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson said that while the spring boost in housing activity had been slower to start than usual, in the second half of October, new listings rose significantly. Normally such increases came before a lift in sales.

New listings at 1396 were up 16 per cent on those for September. Total listings of 5861 at the end of October were up 5.2 per cent on the previous month.

Average weekly rents in October rose $10 to $417, which was a new high and $9 above the previous high in July, and compared to $403 a year ago.

Thompson said the average rent of $417 was from 697 properties, only 20 fewer properties than the company rented in September. That pointed to the market price lifting rather than the increase being due to a shortage of properties.

Goldman Sachs & Partners New Zealand economist Philip Borkin said that seasonally adjusted house sales had fallen 10 per cent from September and were down 36 per cent for the year.

So far falls in fixed mortgage rates and recovery in net migration were having limited impact on activity, he said.

While some recent data suggested the economy was stabilising after a soft patch, the housing market did not fit into that category.

- NZPA