Auckland house sales dip last month, prices rise

Photo / Herald on Sunday

Auckland house sales fell last month, coming off a stronger track in March, suggesting property investors are becoming tentative ahead of the 2010 budget, which will curb tax breaks.

The volume of sales fell 27.6 per cent to 671 in April, while the average sale price edged down less than 1 per cent to $541,486, according to Barfoot & Thompson, Auckland's biggest real estate firm.

Still, the average price was a record for the month of April.

"The budget will give certainty to the market once people have analysed any changes it may contain, but this April has the familiar feel of the start of the normal autumn/winter easing in demand," said Peter Thompson, the firm's managing director.

"The combination of falling sales numbers and stable prices is common for April."

Barfoot had 6079 properties on its books last month, little changed from a year earlier.

New listings fell 22 per cent to 1,312 from March and were up about 12 per cent from April 2009.

The firm let 668 rentals in April, just above the same month of 2009, at an average weekly rent of $398.