
Barfoot & Thompson has started 2025 with a surge in new listings and total stock for sale, while selling prices headed lower.
The real estate agency, which is the biggest in the Auckland market, received 1361 new listings in January, the highest number for the month since 2021.
Sales also pushed higher, with 700 sales becoming unconditional in January, the highest number for the month since 2022.
However, the total stock of properties for sale was also up sharply, rising to 5383. That's a 14% compared to January last year, putting total stock for sale at its highest level for the month of January since 2011.
The rise in stock was accompanied by a fall in selling prices.
Barfoot's average selling price in January was $1,053,446, down $133,016 (-11.2%) compared to December, which was the lowest it has been in any month of the year since October 2020.
January's median selling price of $950,000 was down $50,000 (-5%) compared to December..
The combination of lower prices and rising stock levels adds further strength to the growing mountain of evidence the 2025 housing market will be strongly in buyers' favour.
"The focus of buyers in January was the lower price segments of the market with 56 per cent of our sales in the month taking place in the under $1 million market," Barfoot & Thompson Managing Director Peter Thompson said.
"Our average number of monthly sales in the under $1 million market during 2024 was 51 per cent," he said.
Barfoot Auckland
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181 Comments
If you actually read the article you will see you misrepresent what it says.
If you read the article you'd note the median is down 50k as well.
Should be corrected to
If you read the article you'd note the median sale price is down 50k as well.
Median sales, not median price.
January's median selling price of $950,000 was down $50,000 (-5%) compared to December.
That only indicates people are buying below median properties.
As usual you are twisting data to fit your narrative.
Actually if anything these prices are still artificially too high as if sales were at normal levels (ala 2015 to 2019) much more price discovery would be happening and the median even lower.
By the way HPI for December looked abysmal too if that is your fallback.
I know you are mad that your equity is being beaten up but gotta call a spade a spade.
I can recall one commentator on here warming repeatedly that unless FHB purchase before Xmas they will have missed this cycle and be locked out of the market. Be careful who you listen to.
Price could keep falling all this year with buying conditions improving for FHB as prices drop, interest rates drop a bit more (no expecting much more) and their deposits increase while more stock keeps coming into the market.
Don’t be quick. The best time to buy a house is not always yesterday. Sometimes patience does pay.
Is is actually impressive, even if perverse, how hard the government and RBNZ have worked to keep it going this long. Auckland was already recognized internationally as being in a bubble in 2006 - and the government allowed that to spread to the rest of the country.
Then again, when they recieve multiples more than the average earner, and own multiples more houses, it's not surprising.
MPs salaries should be indexed to other public servants - like teachers, police and nurses.
In the bible it says to love thy enemy. Perhaps to find peace Nifty you could trying sending love to those you disagre with instead of sending hate towards them in nearly every comment on this forum (DGM this..DGM that…DGMs are wrong…DGMs won’t like this).
I’ll send you my love via this forum and hope you find peace in a world full of doom gloom merchants who want an affordable housing for themselves or for their children.
I see that your only way of responding is to try to offend or to ridicule.
Each to their own - we each reap what we sow. I found (from experience in my younger years) that ridiculing people had a tendency of backfiring in me in the long run (even after the initial sugar hit of feeling superior to the other person momentarily).
Second leg down I'd say. Recovery is still a long way off with no obvious reason for one in sight.
Is anyone involved in policy doing any actual research and analysis to prepare NZ for the possibility of further dramatic falls? Or is 'talking up the market' just too important?
Any genuine ideas here for what we might do if confronted with the kind of past falls seen in Ireland, Japan, Spain, etc? Some kind of policy to protect homeowners without necessarily bailing out investors and speculators for example?
Without comparison of type: by the numbers he's mostly right.
Oz median is ~10k higher than NZ, and average ~40k.
But I only say mostly right because these numbers are only nominally 1-4% dearer, which doesn't make them "much" more expensive.
But take incomes into account, and the type of property, and Oz is much cheaper. (Their median earner would be in our upper quartile).
They only seem more expensive to someone locked onto a NZ-earnings perspective.
They are far dearer in the Cities than NZ without doubt.
Australia obviously much larger and the ones in the wop wops drag the average down majorly.
For example, you can buy an apartment in NZ city for 700k or less, go to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and you will be paying a million plus unless you are miles out.
At the end of the day if you think things are better in Oz, then go and check it out.
The Ozzies are all complaining about everything over there you only have to watch Sky News Australia.
On average they are paying on average $50k more interest than they were previously, so you have to gross $70k more be in the same position.
Australia is many multiples more expensive than NZ. Yes, there are "cheaper" houses on the city fringes however those neighbourhoods make Pokeno look like St Helliers. 50km out of town, 50c in summer, 5c in winter, toll roads, schools I wouldn't send my kids to.
You want anything like a reasonable commute to a beach and a decent school and cosmopolitan lifestyle, you need $3m+
Huh. A cursory google shows a 3brm 716sqm house 9km from Brisbane CBD for $1.1 million. And a 5brm house on 630sqm of land 19.8km from the CBD for $888,000. So still significantly better than Auckland, not many multiples more expensive than NZ and "cheaper" on the city fringes.
We lost some talented staff to Brisbane over the last few years, moved over and bought nice houses at a better equation than Auckland.
Te Kooti,
Actually we are moving into a smaller home and just sold our house in Brisbane. Excellent schools zone, 4km from Brisbane CBD, literally 5 mins walk to Brisbane's biggest and best hospital, university nearby. All we got was just over 1mil for 2 br and study, 500sqm land. I wish I could have sold it for 3+ mil.
You are talking untruths.
Go and talk to the Kiwis that lived there and are now back in NZ.
You are deluded if you believe that city living is cheaper in Oz.
People with mortgages or are renting in Oz are struggling big time with homelessness over there for huge numbers.
Anyway, pointless debating it with people that think they know what they are talking about, and don’t..
My neighbours daughter comes home to NZ from Australia regularly to visit her elderly mother. She cannot believe how expensive it is to live here, especially the higher cost of food. And how poorly paid New Zealanders are. Not everyone who goes there makes a go of it. You came back.
I also know a guy who knows a guy's uncle that said.... great anecdote.
Here are 3 sources that say otherwise.
https://livingcost.org/cost/australia/new-zealand
I think what people are referring to is more opportunity, opportunity for much higher wage and thus these "stories" (because that's all it is) of neighbours daughters.
Of course you can not compare Auckland with Sydney for lifestyle and I have been saying for ages that Auckland is not a place to live for a good lifestyle.
The thing is that people that live in Auckland believe that it is so good when things have definitely deteriorated over the last decade or so.
I do not see Auckland as the measurement of the prices of houses in NZ as we all know that is not what they crack it up to be.
A massive stretch, people keep thinking our cities are comparative to Australia's, when they are not even close in scale. Brisbane has a population of 2.7m and a GDP (2017 as that was the easily available figure) of 177 billion. Auckland has 1.7m and with a GDP (2017) of 101.4 billion.
I am actively in the market for an Australian house, so I am well aware of housing costs there. Lets say I sell my Christchurch house for $2m - for about $1.3M I can buy an equivalent home in an equivalent suburb on the Gold Coast (which is the second most expensive property market in Australia after Sydney). For $2M I could buy a monster mansion directly on the waterfront with a private jetty to moor the boat and a swimming pool.
As it is, I'll be looking for a $2M 3 bedroom apartment not a house. The kind of apartments that NZ doesnt even have - waterfront, direct beach access, private marina, three swimming pools, spa/sauna, tennis court, lawns and gardens .... and if they did exist in NZ, they would be a lot more than $2M.
Melbourne is still pretty cheap, and getting cheaper by the minute. Here's one in Melbourne 9km from the CBD - 3 bed, 2 bath, fully renovated, standalone, under $1M
https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-maribyrnong-146956776
The idea that Australian houses are more expensive than NZ is a joke. They are not, and you get a far superior house for your money over there.
One of the Aussie parties had an interesting monetary proposal for this. If more welfare must be handed out, they suggested it was important to avoid it simply being more welfare to property. Thus, the proposal was something along these lines:
- An equal lump sum to every adult, in specific formats / conditions on purpose. E.g. let's say $100k. Created by the usual money printers.
- For property owners, this would be immediately applied to reduce the debt on their property.
- For renters / non-owners, this would be - if I remember correctly - in the form of some government bond or other. Something along these lines.
The details are hazy, I'd have to search it out again, but they essentially trying to avoid the massive welfare wealth transfer that occurred through FLP and similar over COVID (shoveling $10 billion of taxpayer money at property, reducing the value of wages and savings). They were aiming to benefit all not just property owners, and to use the money printing to at the same time reduce the amount of debt and cancel that money back out of circulation...The details in my memory are very sketchy, unfortunately.
Reality is that the prices are still well out of kilter for affordability and value for what you are getting in Auckland and has been fir a long time.
Just doesnt make sense to be paying Auckland prices inflated by immigration .
Posters continue to go on about dropping housing prices but far from the truth in the happiest city in Nz, Christchurch.
Nah. The economic opportunities in chch don’t compare.
There was just movement in that direction when Auckland prices exploded and chch still had slack because of the new areas out west/post quake exodus. That’s all over.
The agents seem desperate at the open homes there now.
I do not see too many desperate real estate sakes people in ChCh.
It has a big turnover of sales people, always had over the past few decades.
Lets just wait and see what the sales figures are for Christchurch and there are still plenty of experienced established investors.
Yes at the bottom Nifty1..... I will tell you when I think we are there.
Do a 3month rolling average of a decent data set (weighted or not, maybe your desired quartile medium or just HPI medium), if its positive for 6 months in a row, its a good sign. Using technical analysis can help take the emotion out of trading.
Then access current taxation and regulation to determine what the recovery will possibly look like.
Also access if you are better buying in an offshore market.
Property has done well, perhaps its not time to chase the dragon.
I never saw his wings clipped, but knew he would not last, the rookie lost it with me and the secret censor removed it....
The issue with many of the Spruikers is thats all they do, they never have an opinion on other matters on this site, which are equally important to social harmony in NZ.
That's because I copied in your post and he did not like the swearing.....
You need to respect people who have made millions from property and business and not just dis them as they do not hold the same view as you right now.... or you will not become an AccomplishedInvestor
Wellington CVs down 24%. It's a massacre today.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-city-property-valuations-plumm…
Real estate spruiker's advice to buyers to ignore CV
He advised buyers and sellers to look at comparable homes which had recently sold in the same area to get a better idea of property value
Where is that information found? Homes - paid for by real estate agents for real estate agents. But definitely manipulated by them in any way. /Sarc
The rampant Morgage Brokers "sort of fraud".........jacking up the Leveraged punters earnings, 5x boarders, 3x working dogs, the goldfishes Youtube channel earnings, the 3-year-old sons paper run......... The Fraud going on over the last 5 years will be an eyeopener!
I suppose you're referring to investment property portfolios with cross collateralization/equity leverage debt stacking and that paper security has since dried up?
Potential for stories of disgruntled old Landlords just "trying to provide an honest roof" being sent a letter demanding partial repayment or selling a property. Or investors excitedly selling one property for a profit (with the debt "loaded" against other properties) and the bank initiating their right to set off those gains against the other debts.
Ole Luxo knows the score with the Housing trade turning sourer, by the day.
Aided by his Housing Minister, breaking the normally tight left/right taboo, of saying "to have the housing prices falling is a wanted and good thing".
My O My, the Spruikers have no friends left......as this risky business burns off the leveraged, like Guido Fawkes on a pile of dry sticks.
Luxon priorities
- Change the law to remove the obligation to pay CGT.
- Immediately sell property that would otherwise have been subject to CGT.
A Trumpesque grift, just like the getting the public to pay for his rent in his own rental and getting his wife to claim the Tesla subsidy.
What a leader.
(a) since he already owned the properties prior to the change in Brightline rules, he never would have been subject to tax on sale anyway.
(b) why would someone give up a $4 million a year salary to become PM if all he was worried about was saving a few bucks on tax?
Hot tip - rich people are not bothered by trivial things like Brightline taxes or car subsidies. Sure, if they are available they will take them, but its not a big deal if they dont.
Its like thinking rich people will come back to NZ in order to claim their pension. Complete joke. Poor people need to understand the rich are not obsessed over such trivialities.
Fun fact - NZ real house prices are now at the lowest they've been since the early 1980s (Priced in Gold, not in NZ dollars). They just fell below the 2011 low of 179 ounces of gold.
In NZ dollars, gold is up 50% in the last year!
Next target is the low which occurred in the 1980s.NZ house prices in gold need to halve to equal that. Will gold double or house prices halve? I think a bit of both.
House prices in gold have always stayed about the same on average for over 100 years. Always remember that it's not prices going up, it's the NZ dollar (and all other currencies) all falling in value.
Strategy idea: Bitcoin bubble is peaking now, sell bitcoin, buy real gold, wait until NZ house prices dip below 100 ounces of gold then sell half the gold, buy houses.
Stunning properties, nothing wrong with these but all passed in today. First one CV 3.4m, opened at 2.6m, no bid.
"Or the vendor could accept market price."
Vendors have price expectations above reasonable market levels, likely strongly influenced by real estate agent's current market appraisal given to vendors in order to win the listing. Then real estate agents can't find buyers at that valuation. One way that vendors revisit their price expectations is the absence of offers at the vendor's asking price after a few months.
I predict a housing death spiral. $360 billion in private debt and rising. A Ponzi scheme in some ways. I am a buyer and I am waiting for a year or two longer before I think about it. Vendors are panicking. They need to be realistic. After the 87 fiasco house prices fell for around 5 years.
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