Barfoot's sales volumes and prices hold steady in January but the median price has risen by $120,000 in the last year

Auckland's largest real estate agency said the number of homes it sold and prices were steady in January.

Barfoot & Thompson sold 859 homes last month compared with 1050 in December and barely changed from the 854 homes it sold in January last year.

The average selling price last month was $757,319, down just 0.2% compared with December's all time high of $758,891.

January's average price was up by $110,112 (17%) compared with January last year.

The median selling price was $700,000 in January, which was up $120,000 (20.7%) compared with January last year, but down 2.8% from December's all time high of $720,000.

There were 179 homes sold for more than $1 million (21% of total sales)  compared with 91 sales above $1 million (10.7% of total sales) in January last year.

That compares with just 212 sales at prices below $500,000.

Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson said that based on January's solid sales numbers and continuing high prices, it was likely that prices would continue to hold firm or edge up modestly in the first half of this year.

The company signed up 1199 new listings in January compared with 645 in December and 1228 in January last year.

The brought the total number of homes it had available for sale to 2899 at the end of January, compared with 2500 at the end of December but well down on the 3371 it had on its books at the end of January last year.

Thompson said the greatest pressure was being felt in the $500,000 to $1 million price range which was where most buyers were looking and there was what he described as a "critical shortage" of homes in that price bracket.