Auckland house prices were down last month, but sales remain strong and numbers of listings are at very low levels ahead of the spring buying season.
The city's biggest real estate firm Barfoot & Thompson says its median price for August was $561,500, down 4% on July's median figure, which was itself down 4.8% on the June figure.
However, despite a strong surge in new listings - with the 1710 coming on to the market the most for an August since 2002 - B&T ended the month with just 2999 houses on its books at the end of the month.
That figure is the most B&T has had in three months.
However, based on the the number of sales being made the firm has - according to interest.co.nz calculations - just 10.2 weeks of available inventory, which is a historic low.
B&T accounts for roughly 40% of Auckland house sales and its inventory figures are pretty much in line with the statistics recently reported by Realestate.co.nz, which showed the number of houses available in Auckland at record lows.
During August B&T sold 1200 houses, which is the most it has sold in an August since 2003.
Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens said the latest figures were possibly "the first sign that the pressure on the Auckland housing market is easing".
"For quite some time the market has been defined by a paucity of properties available for sale, resulting in a moderate number of house sales and very strong price increases.
"However, in August there was a sharp increase in new listings hitting the market."
Stephens said that on a seasonally-adjusted basis the median prices were down 0.9%, while average prices were up 0.4%
"This is a 'step in the right direction' for those who are concerned that house prices are rising too quickly. But it is only a small step.
"The Auckland market had become exceedingly tight, with the stock available for sale hitting decade lows. We would have to see many more months of elevated listings before we could say that the market had normalised," Stephens said.
However, ASB economist Daniel Smith said despite the "small lift" in available housing over the last couple of months, the Auckland market was unlikely to turn around rapidly.
"The fact that sales also rose in August supports our belief that the recent levelling-off in sales was due to supply constraints rather than any drop-off in the level of demand. Any increase in supply is therefore likely to be met with stronger sales activity, which will keep overall supply levels low – and maintain upward pressure on prices," he said.
B&T's average sales price in August was $647,647, which is down by more than $6700 on the July figure and more than $2200 lower than in June.
Managing director Peter Thompson said that the average sales price for Auckland houses had "remained constant" for the past five months
“After a rapid increase in the first quarter of the year, prices have settled down, and there has been no upward pressure on prices for the past two months."
Thompson categorised the market as “ an extremely active market, but with prices restrained.
He said a feature of August’s trading was a drop in the number of homes that sold for in excess of $1 million.
“We sold 118 homes for more than a million during the month, well down from July’s 152 and the 144 in both May and June.
“There was a far greater focus on the under $500,000 market, with 523, or 43.6% of all sales, being in this segment.”
In response to perceived overheated conditions, particularly in Auckland the Reserve Bank announced last month that from October 1 it will be applying so-called "speed limits" on high loan to value lending. See here for articles on LVRs.
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