April 2011 Market Update

Period	Number of Sales*	Volume of Sales
April 2011	723 Properties	$394,017,225
April 2010	671 Properties	$363,337,322
12 Months to April 2011	8,155 Properties	$4,390,266,319
12 Months to April 2010	9,389 Properties	$5,000,802,686

^*Excludes Northland and Commercial

April House Sales In Auckland Shows March Uplift Has Depth

The average house sales price in Auckland of $544,975 for April showed that the record prices achieved in March has depth.

“The average price of $581,190 in March, a record, was always recognised as a one off occurrence,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.

However, with April’s average price being close to $3500 above that for April last year, and the highest average price we have ever achieved in an April, it shows there is forward momentum in prices.

“In each of the four months of this year, the average price achieved has exceeded that for its comparative month of the previous year.

“Other than for March that increase has been modest, but there is a pattern of small gains.

“Activity in the top end of the market remains particularly strong, and a third of all the homes we sold had values exceeding $750,000 while we sold 52 homes with values in excess of $1 million, 8 more than in April last year.”

Mr Thompson said that sales volumes showed the same trend.

“In April we sold 723 homes, 7.7 percent more than in April last year and, if you exclude March’s figures, it was the most homes we have sold in a month for 11 months.”

Mr Thompson said the number of new homes listed in April at 1033 eased significantly, and were a third down on those for March and February, and down 21.3 percent on those in April last year.

“There is renewed interest in the Auckland market at present. However, this was countered in April through a lack of new listings.”

At the end of April, Barfoot & Thompson had 5580 properties on its books, the lowest number in six months.