New figures suggest Auckland’s residential property market has possibly fully recovered from the effects of the lockdown conditions that were evident in April and May, with a buyer’s market forming for potential buyers in Auckland.
Here’s what you need to know:
Market activity hitting strides as it settles into winter trading
New data from June has given the market a happy helping of good news as sales stood steady as it develops into a buyer’s market.
Auckland’s largest real estate agency, Barfoot & Thompson, had a reasonably buoyant sales month in June, selling 820 residential properties which was up 4.3% on June last year. In addition to this welcomed news, selling prices were relatively stable, with the average selling price edging up to $953,417 in June from $947,707 in May, although it was still below the peak of $993,528 set in March.
Auction sales have also settled around the 50% mark, with Barfoot achieving sales on 44 of its auction properties last week, giving a sales rate of 45%, compared to 51% the previous week.
Barfoot & Thompson Managing Director Peter Thompson commented on the data, pointing out that the agency’s surge of 1582 new listings in June contributed to the sales increase, “What contributed to the robustness of the market in June was solid new listings at 1582, 56.3% higher than in the same month last year, an influx of first home buyers and undoubtedly some catch up business from the slow sales in May.”
This surge of new listings on the residential property market was also echoed in data from property sales website Realestate.co.nz, which received 9033 new listings in June – that was up 19.7% compared to June last year and was the highest number of new listings received in the month of June since the height of the last property boom, in June 2016. The surge in new listings was even stronger in Auckland where 3559 new listings were received in June which was up 38.9% on June last year.
Realestate.co.nz spokesperson Vanessa Taylor commented that the surge in listings, and declining asking prices in June created buyer’s market in Auckland, “When inventory is higher than the 13 year, long term average, it tells us that there is more stock available than people buying property and this signals a buyer’s market.”
it’s not just the rush of new listings that is tipping the market in favor of buyers, with asking prices also in decline. The average asking price of properties listed on Realestate.co.nz In the Auckland market t peaked at $1,002,123 in February and had dropped back to $928,969 in June, a decline of $73,154 (-7.3%) in three months.
Taylor commented that these two factors have resulted in the region experiencing a buyer’s market for the first time in several years, “This might be a good time for potential buyers in the region to start seriously looking.”
-by Ravi Mehta, from Professional Financial Solutions