Record buyer demand pushes new zealand property prices to new highs
High demand from buyers pushed the price of New Zealand property to record highs, according to one agent.
In October, the average price of a home in Auckland broke through the $600,000 ceiling for the first time - an increase of 5.6 per cent from last month to set a record average price of $618,707.
"It was a month when buyer demand finally broke through the constraints buyers were imposing on themselves that had seen the average price move in a $10,000 band between $582,000 and $592,000 for five months," said Wendy Alexander, Chief Executive Officer of Barfoot & Thompson.
The new record value is 4.4 per cent than the last record of $592,396, set in August this year, as demand from investors outstripped the number of properties for sale. Indeed, transactions for the month at 1081 were up 11.6 percent on those for September and up 48.7 percent on those for the same month last year.
"October was one of the most active selling months we have ever experienced," added Wendy. "We experienced extremely competitive bidding at auctions, and a very high success rate under the auction hammer.
"Even though we listed 1645 new homes during the month, our highest number of new listings in 31 months, and the highest in an October for three years, it was insufficient to meet buyer demand, particularly at the top end of the market."
Wendy continued: "Sales values in excess of $1 million were a feature of October's activity, and we sold 119 homes in this price category. This was the highest number of million dollar homes we have ever sold in one month."
Indeed, for the first 10 months of the year, Barfoot & Thompson sold 763 homes worth more than $1 million, 64.4 percent higher than the same period last year.
"The only time we have ever sold more than 100 homes for in excess of one million dollars in a month previously was at the height of 2007's sales activity," added Wendy, "and at that time the average monthly selling price was $564,000. At the end of the month we had 3835 properties on our books, our third lowest number in more than a decade."