Auckland house values up 12% in 2007: Agency

By NZPA

Monday 7th January 2008

Auckland house prices rose 12% during 2007, according a major Auckland real estate firm.

Sales figures from Barfoot & Thompson shows its average sale price was $538,478, compared to $480,738 for 2006.

The company began the year with an average monthly sale price of $475,461 in January and climbed to $559,803 in December.

Director Peter Thompson said it was interesting to note that property prices did not seem to have been affected by a fall in sales volumes.

Its monthly number of sales averaged at 915 properties in 2007, down from 1003 in 2005 and 936 in 2006.

Barfoot & Thompson, which claims to sell around a third of residential properties in Auckland, noted December sales volumes were down by more than a third on the previous year, but the December average sale price was still up 2.4% over November.

"Going into 2008, our expectation is that the Auckland property market will continue in the same way with the volume of sales settling at current levels and prices continuing to hold and even improve throughout the year ahead," Thompson said.

Late last month the Real Estate Institute also found that house values had held up despite a big drop in turnover compared with the boom of 2003 and 2004.

REINZ's national median price for the November year rose to $352,000, and annual growth was up 6.66% compared with an increase of 10% a year earlier.

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