Barfoot & Thompson data: Auckland housing market brushes off Covid as spring sales kick in

Auckland's biggest real estate agency set new annual price and volume records last month when the housing market defied gloomy predictions of Covid's effects and was instead gripped by spring fever.

Barfoot & Thompson's median residential sale price for September was $930,000, up on August's $911,000 and July's $890,000.

Sales of 1099 properties during September exceeded all other months for this year, ahead of August's 1055 sales and July's 1095.

Peter Thompson, managing director, said the market held on to the high price gains in August and recorded the highest number of sales in a month since the peak of the last property cycle in 2017.

Many new listings had been made lately, he said.

"In September, we completed 1099 sales. This was 4.2 per cent higher than last month and 42.5 per cent higher than sales numbers in September last year," Thompson said.

"The average price increase over that for August was less than $1500, bringing it to $996,945, while the median price increased by just under $20,000 to $930,000.

"While these are record prices in their own right, the reality is September's average price is 2 per cent higher than the average achieved across the previous three months and the median price at $930,000 is up 2.9 per cent," he said.

"The current prices being paid by buyers shows confidence that prices are likely to hold firm over the medium term," he said.

Close to half or 47 per cent of sales in September were properties that sold for more than $1m and of these 84, or 7.6 per cent of all sales were for more than $2m.

"At month end we had 3780 properties on our books, the lowest number since March but 2.3 per cent higher than in September last year," he said.

"The rural and lifestyle markets to the north and south of Auckland are sharing in the buying activity being experienced in the urban areas. Potential buyers are commenting that their keenness is in part down to the Covid-19 lockdowns.

In the former Rodney area north of Auckland record sales left listing for lifestyle blocks in short supply.

To the south, particularly around Pukekohe, there was strong demand for properties in the $1 to $2m category, Thompson said.

Lifestyle buyers were also interested in 1ha lots and land with transferable building rights, he said.