Auckland house price growth is stabilising, Barfoot says

Friday 3rd June 2016

Auckland house price growth appears to be stabilising since hitting a record in November last year, according to the city's largest realtor.

The average sale price edged up 0.1 percent to $874,623 in May from April, Barfoot & Thompson said in a statement. That's up 2.4 percent from the previous three months, and a rise of 6.4 percent from May last year. The average price hit a record $876,075 in November 2015. Monthly sales volumes jumped 38 percent to 1,306 from April, and were up 6.6 percent on May last year.

"This is well down on the 12 percent increase we saw in the 2015 calendar year," said Peter Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson. "In the last two months, the number of sales has not influenced prices. In May, turnover was high and in April turnover was low, yet for both months prices remained relatively static or fell.”

The government and the Reserve Bank have both introduced new measures in an attempt to cool Auckland's housing market, where migrants and investors are adding to competition for a shortage of housing stock. Last year, the central bank introduced Auckland-specific lending restrictions, while the government cracked down on property speculators and offshore investors. Housing Minister Nick Smith yesterday unveiled the government's biggest weapon yet in its attempts to solve Auckland housing unaffordability, with a National Policy Statement that lets it force local councils into making enough affordable land available for housing and business development.

The latest Barfoot data shows more than a third of all the properties the realtor sold in May went for more than $1 million, with just 14 percent selling for less than $500,000.

The realtor's new listings in May increased 27 percent to 1,905 from April and were up 9.5 percent up on May last year. At the end of May, Barfoot had 3,013 properties on its books, 5.9 percent ahead of April and down 1.5 percent from May last year.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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