Barfoot & Thompson's December sale volumes hit new four-year high, prices fall

The number of properties sold by Auckland's largest agency in December hit a new four-year high.

Barfoot & Thompson said it sold 779 properties last month, the most since 2015 when it sold 796 properties.

End-of-year numbers dropped in December 2016 when the agency sold just 721 properties, sinking to 674 sales by December 2017 and just 504 sales in December 2018.

Peter Thompson, the agency's managing director, said last month was particularly good.

"The Auckland residential housing market ended 2019 strongly with December sales numbers being their highest in four years and prices holding on to most of the gains made in November," he said.

"The strong December performance has left the market extremely short of stock and at month-end we had only 3191 properties on our books, the lowest number in any month for more than four years. Properties for sale were 13.8 per cent lower than in the previous month and limited stock is holding back sales activity," Thompson said.

But other data from the agency showed a less rosy picture: average prices in Auckland slipped from November's $963,671 to $949,092 last month and median prices were also down from November's $891,000 to $865,000.

In contrast, Quotable Value today issued new national house sales data showing Auckland house prices made their biggest quarterly jump in two years as the property market's resurgence gains speed.

Average values have now hit $1.047 million, while analysts CoreLogic and QV's latest House Price Index jumped 1.9 per cent in three months.

Not since September 2017 has the house price index jumped so much in a quarter as it rode a boost in expensive house sales in the inner city and North Shore.

Nationally, the house price index also made its biggest leap in three years with prices jumping 2.7 per cent over the last three months, the QV data showed.

Thompson predicted Auckland was in for "an active late summer and autumn selling season."