Auckland median house sale price rises 12% in March, as volumes fall: Barfoot
The median price rose to $798,000 from $711,000 in March 2015.
The median sale price for a house in Auckland rose 12% last month from a year earlier, edging back toward its December record while both sales volumes and new listings fell, says Barfoot & Thompson, the city's largest realtor.
The median price rose to $798,000 from $711,000 in March 2015 and was up 8.1% from February, Barfoot said. That's within $2000 of the record price set in December. The firm had 1341 sales last month, down 16% from a year earlier while new listings were 6.2% lower at 1874.
Residential building permits for Auckland jumped 49% in February from a year earlier, for an annual 9534, which is below the 13,000 the city is estimated to need to match population growth.
"As it has been for the past two years, lack of supply remains the main price driver," managing director Peter Thompson said in a statement. "Although a record number of building permits are being issued, and new homes are springing up everywhere, Auckland is simply not building homes fast enough to keep up with the growing population."
He said government figures show the population of Auckland rose by 3000 in February and that, based on an average occupancy of three people to a house, that implied monthly demand would rise by 1000 properties on that basis alone.
Surging house prices in Auckland may be driving another metric at Barfoot, which said there were 474 sales for more than $1 million, the highest number ever for a single month. Properties sold for less than $500,000 rose about 11% to 146.
"March is always one of the busiest sales months of the year and a good indicator of where prices are tracking for the remainder of the year," Mr Thompson said.
(BusinessDesk)
Jonathan Underhill
Tue, 05 Apr 2016
Tue, 05 Apr 2016
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Auckland median house sale price rises 12% in March, as volumes fall: Barfoot
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