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Barfoot & Thompson's median selling price eased back in February as buyers showed "more caution"

Property
Barfoot & Thompson's median selling price eased back in February as buyers showed "more caution"
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</a>

The average and median selling prices of homes sold by the Auckland's largest real estate agency both declined last month.

Barfoot & Thompson's median selling price for homes sold in the Auckland region dropped back to $686,500 in February, compared to $700,000 in January and the all time high of $720,000 set in December.

February's median was the lowest the company has posted since October, however it was still well above the February 2014 median of $620,000 and the February 2013 median of $526,000.

Barfoot's average selling price was $747,521 in February compared with $757,319 in January and $678,533 in February last year.

The company sold 843 homes in February, down slightly on the 859 it sold in January but up on the 771 it sold in February last year.

"This February was one of our busiest on record, with sales up by 9.3% on those for the same period last year and new listings up 47.7% on those for January," Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson said.

"With choice far greater since November, some of the pressure on prices eased and buyers showed more caution about paying over the top to get properties.

"The level of sales activity shows that while there is still strong buyer interest, for the time being buyers felt property was fully priced."

The company had a total of 3258 properties listed for sale on its books at the end of  February compared with just 2899 at the end of January and 2500 at the end of December.

Sales selling for under $500,000 accounted for a quarter of the company's sales in February, while properties priced between $750,000 and $1 million were in high demand.

The company sold 174 homes for $1 million or more during the month.

Barfoot Auckland

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18 Comments

Ease back Eh?

We'll see.

Wait until  the market gets a second wind from  all the QE moneybeing created  in Asia ( and Europe ) arrives here looking for yield , or a home , or a laundromat

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This cannot be so. Property never drops in price. Surely B and T have got it all wrong.

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Lost in space eh Gordon. Kids these days. Making them live through 1987 - 1989 would teach them a lesson.

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Just taking a breather while the movers and shakers took time off to celebrate the Lunar New Year 15 Feb thru 1 March

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Why are Barfoots stats published at all?  Any sale they make is included in QV and REINZ stats along with every other sale.  Why would someone make decisions based on only 30% of market activity when free stats are available every month for the whole market. 

 

Seems all a bit pointless to me, says more about Barfoot's market share than it does about the whole market. 

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Everyone knows that Ray White / Baileys and other premium RE companies get the top half of the market.  Barfoots are typically the low end.  

I also agree with Happy123 - why even bother reading Barfoots (30% accurate) report when you can get the whole hog?

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House prices up, down or steady, or perhaps all of the above, there's always a headline to be ingested like a drug. Can't wait until the next fix ..

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Whatever spin the doubters may want to put on this article, one thing for certain is life is still good in landlord land.

And clearly there's more good news to come. All well-deserved of course. 

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It is time to sell

$720,000 last December

$700.000 in January

$686,500 in February

If this is the trend, the median selling price for homes in the Auckland region will be dropped below $600k by the end of 2015.

 

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I think we'd need a couple of more months of declines to call it a trend. Dorkland property does odd things. 

I like the NZ Herald - Are prices up or are they down? They had a "prices down" headline but as the story gains traction and moves up the homepage (assuming some automated weighting of stories) the title was edited to a more benign question. 

By the time it's #1 story it'll be titled "Two swallows don't make a spring"

 

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That'd make a good Tui advert:

Auckland median house prices will be below $600k later this year...

 

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Careful Mac - six months ago dtcarter was talking putting up tui billboards if the petrol price went down within the next five years. And we all know what happened next. Things can change quickly.

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Are you dishing out advice Gloom?   I often wonder how many people actually pay attention to the perpetual doomsters.  Imagine how many people didn't buy in Auckland 3 - 4 years ago based on negative things they've read here.  And now they're locked out of home ownership... probably forever. 

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"And now they're locked out of home ownership... probably forever." No they simply move Happy? The world is not Auckland.

 

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What if their family, friends, schools, job, loves and life are in Auckland...  Life's not that simple. 

 

I'm just interested to see when the doomsters on this site are going to stand up and say "we got it wrong, horribly wrong, couldn't have been more wrong"  "our opinions arn't worth the 0s and 1s they're printed in". 

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Don't get too excited

 

Further to the mention above about the effect of the "Lunar New Year" when everyone goes home to take a break away from business and the trials of everyday life and celebrate with family  

 

for independent confirmaton - check this out

Casino Gambling revenues in Macau drop 50% during "Lunar New Year" festivities

http://www.smh.com.au/business/china/bad-news-for-james-packer-as-macau-gaming-revenue-halves-in-february-20150304-13udez.html

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The proverbial arse is falling out of the Macau junket business from what I read - I don't think that is a february thing... http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/30/us-macau-debt-idUSKCN0JE00N20…

 

It's an ongoing China slowdown thing.

 

Auckland's February B&F decline may be a blip. I reckon three months decline is definitely worth noting and is probably more than a statistical blip. We'll see in a month's time.

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Interesting though I have been out watching auctions and checking out properties and they are not all selling that fast or not at all.  Either the properties are not what buyers want, or buyers are now becoming a bit more price aware/sensitive.  A property in Mission Bay had a 2014CV of $616,000 biders went to $860,000, didn't meet reserve, now its on the market for $1,000,079

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