Auckland property market cools in April

Auckland asking prices have hit a record high, but they have dipped across the rest of New Zealand. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Auckland house prices and sale numbers fell in April following a March with the strongest monthly sales in five years.

Barfoot & Thompson, which sells about one in three Auckland residential properties, said the average April sale price was $568,000, $3,000 lower than in March.

Its April sale numbers of 750 were 40 per cent lower than the March number, though consistent with April 2011 sales.

"At month's end we had only 4,621 homes on our books throughout Auckland, the lowest number in four months and 17.2 per cent lower than at the same time last year," said managing director Peter Thompson, in a statement.

"This underlies the extent to which there is a lack of choice available to potential home buyers," he said.

March and April normally represent the high point of summer sales activity and prices and volumes tend to ease moving into autumn.

Thompson predicts that the high level of buyer interest and low levels of choice will likely see prices hold firm during May.

"For three of the four months of this year, the average sales price for the month has been higher than the corresponding month last year," said Thompson.

Price increases have ranged from 4.2 per cent in April, to 2.7 per cent in January and February. March's corresponding year price difference was a fall of 1.7 per cent.

"Prices are not running hot and prices being achieved above realistic valuations are the exception and not the norm," he said.