Auckland property market remains steady in April

Barfoot & Thompson’s sales results for April show the Auckland property market’s performance for the month was consistent with previous years, with the number of property sales decreasing in line with the normal seasonal pre-winter slowdown.

Monday, May 9th 2005, 1:35PM

Director Peter Thompson says sales volumes dropped from 1,357 in March to 967 in April, but that was in line with what was expected at this time of year. “Market activity generally slows down as we enter the cooler months, but the upside is that vendors and buyers who remain in the market are generally very motivated to sell or buy.”

BNZ Chief Economist Tony Alexander says that while the volume of April sales declined by 29%, when the figure is adjusted for the seasonal effect sales were actually unchanged from March and down just 3.4% on a year ago.

“This is the slowest annual rate of decline since February 2004 and compares well with annual falls of 3.8% in March and 11.6% in February.”

Mr Alexander described Auckland property market activity during April as “relatively firm”.

The average sale price for April was $460,604 compared to $468,151 in March. Mr Thompson said the average price was difficult to accurately interpret at present because the past couple of months had each been skewed to a greater or lesser extent by some very large individual transactions.

“For example, during April there was a singe land sale worth more than $10 million and four other sales valued between $4 million and $7 million. Likewise in March there were three large sales between $3 million and $10 million.

“Our market intelligence suggests prices continue to remain relatively stable and the average sale price of $453,016 across all four months this year compares favourably with the average for the whole of 2004 of $423,317.”

Barfoot & Thompson’s property management division also had a quieter month, consistent with seasonal trends with 634 houses and units let during April, compared to 683 in March. Average weekly rent eased a little from $346 in March to $342 in April.

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