'Golden Autumn' continues for Auckland house sales: Barfoots

Auckland's biggest real estate firm says the region's "golden autumn" for property sales continued through June, with sales up 5.8 per cent from the month before, and 54.9 per cent on the same month last year.

The company sold 861 properties during the month, at an average price of $521,791.

Prices were down 2.3 per cent from May, "an expected decline", said Barfoot as it was traditional for prices to fall as winter approached. Prices were less than 1 per cent down than those in June last year.

"The Auckland housing market has made a remarkable recovery from the challenges experienced as a result of the past 18 months of economic downturn," said Peter Thompson, Barfoot & Thompson managing director.

"No-one was forecasting the speed, strength and solidity of the recovery in house sales activity, or the prices that are being achieved," he said.

"It's hard to dismiss the robust sales of recent months as a temporary reprieve in the ongoing decline of housing values.

"For the past six months we have sold on average 747 properties a month, which is on average a third more than the average of 561 for the same six months last year.

Thompson said that values had remained firm, and for the past six months, the average sale had been $510,896, close to last year's 12 month average price of $513,597.

"The strength of the Auckland housing market can be added to the list of 'green shoots' indicating that the economy in general and people's confidence is starting to stabilise," said Thompson.

He said that the biggest challenge facing the company was obtaining new listings, and at the end of June listings had fallen to 5557, the lowest level for the past 20 months.

Barfoots is Auckland's largest real estate firm. It says it sells "around one in three" of all Auckland residential homes.

- NZ HERALD STAFF