High demand for homes in Auckland in New Zealand is helping prices to soar with new figures showing that values are hitting new records.
The latest property report from realestate.co.nz shows the average asking price for the region's homes in October was $611,864, a 9% increase on last year.
And data from Barfoot & Thompson shows that the average price of a home in the city reached $618,707 in October, up 5.6% from the previous month.
The realestate.co.nz data also shows that the national average price also reached a new high of $445,529, with Canterbury also showing strength with an average house asking price of $414,070, an increase of 13% compared with a year ago.
As the two largest property markets in New Zealand, it is notable to see the price cross this psychological threshold in Auckland and Canterbury. Clearly this reflects high seller confidence that exists in these markets,ђ said Paul McKenzie, marketing manager for realestate.co.nz.
Southland, for example, had the lowest average asking price of $248,977. The only regions to see a drop in the average asking price from September were the West Coast, down 6.8% to $285,657, Taranaki down 4.6% to $286,297, Hawkes Bay down 2.1% to $348,344 and Nelson down 1.3% to $449,858.
October was one of the most active selling months we have ever experienced. 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,ђ said Wendy Alexander, chief executive officer of Barfoot & Thompson.
We experienced extremely competitive bidding at auctions, and a very high success rate under the auction hammer. It was a case of demand far out stripping the number of properties up for sale,ђ she explained.
Sales for the month at 1,081 were up 11.6% on those for September and up 48.7% on those for the same month last year.
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,ђ explained Alexander.
Sales values in excess of $1 million were a feature of Octoberђs 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, she added.
The firm also reports that business is booming at the higher end of the market. ґFor the first 10 months of the year we have sold 763 homes for more than $1 million, which is 64.4% higher than for the same period last year, said Alexander.
ґThe 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 2007s sales activity, and at that time the average monthly selling price was $564,000,Ғ she pointed out.
At the end of the month we had 3835 properties on our books, our third lowest number in more than a decade,ђ she added.
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