The rise and rise of Auckland’s housing prices
Auckland's Barfoot & Thompson has sold the highest number of houses in a month during February as prices reach new records.
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Hawke’s Bay
Auckland house prices continue their relentless surge, with new records set last month.
Barfoot & Thompson says there hasn’t been a month’s trading in the company's history to compare with last month.
Managing director Peter Thompson says the average sales price increased by 3.9% from February, pushing the average sales price to an all-time high of $776,729. It is more than $17,000 higher than the previous record average price set in December last year.
The median price at $711,000 increased 1.1% from February and is 9% higher than the median in March last year. A quarter of the 1597 homes Barfoot & Thompson sold during March fetched more than $1 million.
“Buyers were not put off by the record prices, and for the last two weeks of the month we sold more than 400 homes each week, the highest two weeks trading in the company’s history,” Mr Thompson says.
He says buyers remain convinced a stable economy, low interest rates and restricted housing availability means buying at current prices is manageable.
“In the first quarter of this year, the average sales price has risen 6.1% over 2014’s average price for the year of $716,588, and March’s average price was 7 % higher than it was 12 months previously.
“The high prices are encouraging more home owners to bring their property to market, and during March we listed 1997 new properties, the highest number in the past 17 months.“
Mr Thompson says while sales activity in April is unlikely to match that for March, given the relatively good level of choice available trading can be expected to remain extremely active.
Sally Lindsay
Tue, 07 Apr 2015
Tue, 07 Apr 2015
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The rise and rise of Auckland’s housing prices
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