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Barfoot & Thompson, Auckland's biggest real estate firm, says more properties were listed for sale with it in February than in any February in five years. This came as monthly house sales rose 17% from February 2012.
Peter Thompson, Barfoot & Thompson's managing director, said his firm recorded 1,752 new listings in February, the most in a February month since 2,049 in 2008. This was up 22% on January's 1,440, and is only the third time in five years the company's new listings have reached 1,700 in a month.
Barfoot's release comes after Realestate.co.nz said yesterday the nationwide stock of unsold houses on the block fell in February to its lowest level since July 2007, adding to supply constraints in Auckland and Canterbury.
Thompson said the rising number of properties for sale took some pressure off prices, with its average sale price in February NZ$604,164, up 0.6% from January's NZ$600,754, but down NZ$23,557, or 4%, from November's record high of NZ$627,721. February sales volumes rose to 892, which is 128, or 17%, higher than February 2012, and 72, or 9%, higher than January this year.
At the end of February Barfoot & Thompson had 3,988 properties on its books, the highest at a month’s end since last June's 4,078, which at the time was the firm's lowest number for nearly seven years.
“While choice is at its highest since June 2012 it may be a short-term situation, as the number of properties for sale still remains at the lower end of the scale over the past decade," Thompson said.
“A significant number of new builds have to reach the market before pressure will ease.”
During January and February this year Barfoot & Thompson sold 152 houses for more than NZ$1 million, with 12 going for more than NZ$2 million in each of January and February. The total sold for more than NZ$1 million is up 62, or 69%, from January and February 2012, when 12 houses sold for more than NZ$2 million January and February combined.
Of the total houses sold in February, 405 or 45%, went for less than NZ$500,000.
Here's Barfoot & Thompson's February market analysis and here's its settled residential sales.
A maturing housing market upturn?
Westpac senior economist Michael Gordon suggested the Barfoot & Thompson figures provide more evidence of a maturing housing market upturn.
"Sales remain strong but there are tentative signs that supply is rising to meet demand. Seasonally adjusted sales rose 1.5% in February, pegging back some of the 10% drop in January," said Gordon.
"The total number of available listings rose for a second straight month, though that's not enough to conclude that the 40% decline in listings since mid-2010 has turned," Gordon added.
"We expect a 9% rise in nationwide house prices over 2013. Given that house price inflation was already running at around 6% by the end of 2012, our forecast is consistent with the housing boom moving into a mature stage, with the rate of growth in both prices and sales starting to level out. (But) even that would be of little comfort to the Reserve Bank. Sustained increases in house prices would exacerbate both the inflationary and financial stability concerns that make up its current Policy Targets Agreement."
(Update adds additional detail, economist's comments).
26 Comments
This co-incides with the latest QV suburb average values published yesterday:
1 Herne Bay $1,947,333
2 St Marys Bay $1,657,833
3 Parnell $1,337,556
4 Epsom $1,203,222
5 Stanley Point $1,156,111
6 Remuera $1,149,556
7 Ponsonby $1,140,778
8 Takapuna $1,136,833
9 Westmere $1,084,778
10 Mission Bay $1,078,611
11 Devonport $1,053,222
12 Mt Eden $1,047,667
13 Freemans Bay $1,031,611
14 Cambells Bay $997,389
15 St Heliers $997,167
16 Kohimarama $967,111
17 Grey Lynn $949,944
18 Orakei $938,944
19 Castor Bay $933,389
20 Glendowie $918,333
Why do you love posting those figures so often?
Here are some from the holy ground of Central West:
Ross Brader AREINZ says:
March 5, 2013 at 6:15 amHouse prices in the inner Auckland suburbs have well and truly recovered and a shortage of stock through 2013 combined with record low interest rates will only see prices escalate further.
Westmere up 28.7%
$832,278 Average value at 2007 peak
$1,084,778 Average value at 01/02/2013
Pt Chevalier up 26.6%
$655,444 Average value at 2007 peak
$830,833 Average value at 01/02/2013
Grey Lyn up 29.2%
$737,000 Average value at 2007 peak
$949,944 Average value at 01/02/2013
Data sourced from Quotable Value Quarterly Report released March 4th
And ain't that interesting that the first record of use of the expression also seems to have related to the field of commerce;
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/heavens-to-betsy.html
Very insightful of you, waymad.
I put this discussion into Paranoia Software translate, but it looks a little funny, could you check the translation for me?
Is says the translation is
Chairman Moa: 'Begin implementation of secret Chinese plan to crash NZ economy, buy up all houses at inflated prices'.
xingmowang: 'But this makes no sense that is a stupid plan. It will just mean Chinese own really expensive houses in NZ.'.
doublegz: 'No this will make the NZ economy unable to grow as fast as China long live the Chinese communist conspiracy!!!'
So many of these advertorials here and at the Granny Herald in the past few years. It seems Barfoot & Thompson are the go-to guys whenever there's a story about "Auckland house prices", which seems to be just about all of the time.
Makes me wonder: any back-room, back-scratching deal going on between local media and B&T? Even if not, it means that B&T are getting a hell of a lot of free advertising!
JetLiner
Jetliner, B&T have averaged just below 40% market share in Auckland for many many years. Is there a company anywhere in the world in a major city that has that track record? Many would agree their credibility as a market commentator is justified and shouldn't be discarded - even if they are only real estate agents.
FYI, I understand your point and know about their market share, but you also mention that "their credibility as a market commentator is justified", and right there's the kicker -- *a* market commentator, not the only one. Why not do the regular reporting of figures from a less partisan source, like REINZ, for example: http://www.reinz.co.nz/reinz/public/reinz-statistics/reinz-statistics_home.cfm. Their data is monthly, so it should be fresh enough.
Basic statistical theory tells us that a larger sample is more stable and more representative of the population it's drawn from than a small one, so wouldn't REINZ's data (which includes B&T and other real estate agencies' data) be a more representative and non-partisan way of getting the message across?
I don't have a problem with REs per se, just get a little jaded with seeing industry comment from one company 90% of the time, which, like I said, is effectively free advertising for them.
JetLiner
Housing NZ releases 10,629m2 of central Auckland land for sale - affordable housing anyone?
http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential/sections-for-sale/auction…
I wonder why BT hasn't set up shop there... millions of potential sales here:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/tv/Current-Affairs/Show/Dateline/Chinas…
There is a very easy way for the buyers to take control back of the market.
STOP BIDING AT AUCTION.
Why as buyers are we allowing Real-estate agents (The Clowns) and the Real-estate industry (The circus) to dictate to the buyer how we purchase?
Stop BIDDING AND BUYING by auction and the market will even out very quickly.
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