Auckland property nudges up in May

The Auckland property market was stable in May, with small increases in prices and turnover, says Barfoot & Thompson. Photo / Herald on Sunday.

The Auckland housing market appears to be taking the May 20 budget in its stride, Auckland's biggest real estate firm says.

Prices and turnover lifted slightly in May, reflecting a stable and balanced market, Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson said.

The firm sold 792 homes with average price tag of $542,806 last month which was a sound benchmark for winter.

There was no sharp or immediate reaction to changes around depreciation allowances following the release of the budget, Thompson said.

However it was too early to be "black and white" about any potential long-term impact, given the budget came two-thirds of the way through the trading month, he said.

"April may well turn out to have been the wait and see month," he said.

Realestate.co.nz said earlier this week vendors were lowering their asking prices to meet the winter market.

It noted a 4 per cent fall in asking price expectations from new listings last month.

Barfoot & Thompson said its data showed the average Auckland price was in line with the average price for April and was up 1.7 per cent on that for May last year.

The number of homes sold was up 18 per cent on those for April, and down 2.7 per cent on those for May last year, the firm said.

There were 1369 new listings during May, up 57 on April figures, suggesting trading was "normal".

"On June 1 we had 6023 properties on our books, which are down 56 on the number we had on May 1, and the lowest number we have had for three months."

Philip Borkin of Goldman Sachs JBWere said the market remained modest and turnover was well down on the decade average of closer to 900 sales per month.

"While we see the possibility of some pent up demand emerging, headwinds for the housing market remain, particularly given pending monetary policy tightening, waning net migration and ongoing affordability issues."

The rental market also remained stable last month.

The average rental remained at $398 per week during May, while the number of houses and units let was 649, 19 less than April.

"We will have to wait until June's sales figures are in before we get a real fix on the impact of the budget on property values.

"However, based on the trends that can be read into May's figures what is evident is there has been no knee-jerk reaction to the measures introduced."

If prices and volumes edged lower in the coming months, then it would probably be as a result of the normal seasonal trading pattern, he said.