Some recovery in residential property sales - Harcourts

Tuesday 21st December 2010 1 Comment

Residential property sales saw some recovery in November after a disappointing start to spring, but prices and volume were still significantly down on the same time last year, according to real estate company Harcourts.

Written sales and listings increased last month compared with October, and with a large amount of unsold property still on the books buyers now had significant choice, Harcourts chief executive Hayden Duncan said.

"As I said last month, we definitely believe there is some pent-up demand and with mortgage rates low and looking set to stay that way, perhaps the holiday period will not be as quiet as it is traditionally?"

Written sales rose 4% in the northern region last month compared with November 2009, following a 25% decline in October.

Central North Island region sales were down 22%, Wellington region sales fell 8% after October's 46% decline; Christchurch sales were down 28% after a 41% drop, and provincial South Island sales were down 16% after October's 28% fall.

But the number of written sales were significantly higher than in October, aside from in the central North Island region.

The average price fell 8% in the northern region compared with a year earlier, was down 14% in the central North Island region, fell 6% in Wellington and lost 13% in Christchurch, but rose 5% in the provincial South Island region.

NZPA

Comments from our readers

On 22 December 2010 at 7:01 am J Trader said:

Harcourts operates in the lower pricing sector of the residential real estate market, so there does appear to be signs of an improvement in the confidence for purchasers and sellers of this part of the market, but probably only in Auckland. The rest of the country is rather subdued based on this information - probably reflecting the confidence levels in employment.