Barfoot & Thompson had a slow start to 2017, selling just 629 homes in January compared to 721 in December and 893 in January last year.
It was the lowest number of sales the agency has achieved in the month of January since 2011. January 2017's sales were down 264, or 30%, year-on-year.
Prices were flat compared to December but remained below the peak hit in October last year.
The median price of homes sold by the agency in January was $846,500 compared with $840,000 in December and October's peak of $865,000.
The average price in January was $913,938 compared to $913,709 in December, and the peak of $943,801 in October.
The sales figures provide further evidence that the Auckland market is cooling, because while sales numbers were down in January the number of new listings the agency received during the month was up, and so was the total number of homes for sale it had listed on its books.
Barfoot's took on 1142 new listings in January compared with 776 in December and 919 in January last year.
That helped push the total number of listings the agency has available for sale to 3620 at the end of January, compared with 3270 in December and 2574 in January last year.
It was the most listings the company has had on its books in January since 2013.
Barfoot & Thompson Managing Director Peter Thompson said prices remained rock steady compared to those being achieved at the end of last year and this had reversed a three month price decline from October's high.
The increase in new listings and inventory levels was giving buyers more choice.
"At the start of this year buyers enjoyed greater choice than has been the case at this time of year for four years," Thompson said.
However only 79 or just 12.5% of the properties the company sold in January went for less than $500,000.
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If you read the actual Barfoot's report it paints a completely different picture. Are they pushing "fake news"?
Extracts below and read the link:
"Sale prices for Auckland houses remain rock steady"
“January is normally associated with a dip in prices but for the first time in 14 years the average and median prices paid were marginally higher than those in December,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.
“The average sales price for the month was $913,938 and the median price $846,500. These prices reverse a three-month sales-price decline from the all-time highs set in October 2016.”
“What has come through across all price segments is there were no obvious signs prices were under great pressure to fall. “
link:
https://www.barfoot.co.nz/market-reports/2017/january/market-update
Nope Ted's WRONG! If you're referring to what happened last year; how prices dipped and then returned to increasing from from Jan onward. That was due to the new IRD regulations being enforced which temporarily locked out foreign buyers for around three months. Apparently prices propped quite a bit (Around -8 to -13%) in Auckland.
There is a similar thing happening now, in that Foreign Buyers have been locked out again due to their own Governments actions of restricting capital flight. Hence why prices are dropping again and are probably headed south for some time.
Firstly how can you tell? Secondly I very much doubt that they're foreign buyers at least from China.
Thirdly resident buyers haven't dropped the ball they had it taken from them by being priced out!
Once prices return to affordable levels that will allow Kiwis to buy their homes again.
Does this mean I will not be a multi-millionaire benefactor any more.
Will I have to send the 'Keys' back home to Daddy.?
Will Keys come back to save us all. Will I be allowed to have a key at all.
Will I have to pay down debt.?
Will my leverage account against me, when I cannot account for the first house, never mind the last.
Will my accountant flip me off, when I tell him? Will the bank be surprised?
Should I have put in a spiral staircase, as they always spiral upwards?. Houses never go down so a lift is never necessary.
Will this be my answer.....
Read on.
Matthew Carr.... Japan is in crisis.
The very fabric of the country's society is changing. And the impact is being felt across industries... and across the global economy.
It's something American retirees - and American citizens in general - need to sit up and take notice of. (Maybe NZ too).
Because in Japan, the elderly are on a crime spree... And they won't stop.
At first glance, it may seem funny. But it's not.
In 2005, 5.8% of criminal arrests in Japan were of people 65 years old and older...
Today, it's 20%.
That's not a typo.It's a disturbing reality...
One-fifth of all criminal arrests in Japan are of elderly individuals.
Even worse, the chance of them becoming repeat offenders is 70% within five years.
Part of the problem is they're lonely and bored. And they simply don't fear the legal ramifications.
But the biggest part of the problem - the part the rest of us must pay attention to - is that prison is an upgrade.
Most seniors in Japan work low-skill, low-wage jobs. The average salary for workers 65 and older in Japan is less than $29,000 a year. That's 19% lower than the average for American seniors.
Lucky we is rich....eh. We has shares in houses. man.
Reading the report it highlights an anomaly in the figures. The market seems to remain active for owner occupiers who are buying in the $1 million plus market and declining for investors. The result is a higher proportion of the sales are the higher value properties - hence bringing up the average (both mean and median). What we are likely to be seeing is actually a decline in values which is not quite reflected in the way they report their figures. The QV figures are better stratified for tracking this impact - but are severely lagged because they are based on settlement date and the time to load the figures - so probably about two months behind.
What we will see is a buyers' response who are seeing the media coverage, which will mean they will be less urgent about buying properties and will wait for the market to settle. At the same time there is a growing number of people putting investment properties on the market.
I think QV's on-going argument about future housing price growth is very dubious. They spend too much time talking to real estate agents and not enough time thinking like economists.
Vancouver 42% $$$ Vanished in past 12 months
http://m.huffpost.com/ca/entry/14578230
They wonder where the $money has gone out of the Vancouver housing market !
Of course it will never happen to Auckland Yeah Right
Next step: A few sensible investors realise that no capital gain means a rental yield falling to 3% (say)
Hence they go to market.
Follow on: Will there be a torrent once others come to a similar conclusion?
And: How many sheeple will then run with the herd instinct?
Great for election year. Huh?
We should give all these a very interesting reading
https://www.barfoot.co.nz/market-reports/2017/january/market-update
Also check past 12 months, 15% drop in sales against 2015..
So the HEAT is OFF
Prices dropping every month... sales dropping...
did you read all the other comments?
Main reason while AVERAGE and MEDIAN prices are still up
is because NO Properties being sold in the bracket 500-1m.
Check Trademe... you'll see
Most of ads say "price dropped" "make an offer" etc.etc
I have seen prices dropping as far as 10% since early December.
I'm not angry or anything like that. I've done really well out of the Auckland market and can't complain.
I just don't understand how this article suggests the market is cooling / downturn, when prices increased from last last month? I'll believe it when I actually see prices fallng.
More useful statistics would be year on year total sales, number of houses/apartments sold, and so on.
I've been watching a few houses on trademe as a sort of benchmark since January. Some are cutting their asking price as the houses are selling. The houses that are on the market but no moving at their price don't turn up in any sales figures.
Anyway the picture of where the market is at will become clearer over the next few months.
Because it misrepresents the situation by saying average price is rock solid if sales volumes are down. Would you be happy if you ran a shop and said you managed to keep widget price at 100 but you sold a lot less of them?
Averages and medians are volatile on low volumes. Low volumes of sales snd higher stock levels are a lead indicator of downward price pressure. Just dont tell Ted
January median below that of August, average below that of September. Sales down 30 percent , y/y, January sales lowest in 6 years, lowest monthly sales in 71 months .RBNZ credit growth has slowed. Selling fewer homes has consequences for Auckland's economy, self feeding spiral.
Yes I've been in rooms. Barfoot north shore sold 3 of 14. Very busy auction rooms noticeably more people than late last year, but sitting on their hands at the moment. Harcourts in rooms yesterday sold 6 of 6. Another onsite auction of an uninhabitable Browns bay do up went for over 1mill.
I think it's time to cut through all the BS:
3rd Feb 2016 - "Auckland City" on trademe had 1401 listings.
3rd Feb 2017 - "Auckland City" on trademe has 1878 listings.
So there are 34% more listings this year for the Auckland City area than last year at the same time.
So Triple - you're telling me that there are now 34% more homes available for purchase at this time of year compared to last - yet our economists and Ministers are still stuck on the fact that the Auckland 'bubble/price inflation' is caused by a shortage of supply?
How could that possibly be? I smell a rat....
Either a bunch of people are cashing up and leaving Auckland.....or prices are now so high that the new arrivals (70,000 or whatever extreme number it is) have been priced out of the market. Either way, it looks like the Auckland market has peaked. Best to sell up if you're a speculator before the market drops!
You can buy this for about the same price as a 4 bedder in Ponsonby.. Yes heaps of job here and way better than Auckland
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-carina+heights-123800110
We had this the other day
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-26/chinese-capital-controls-threa…-
Boom or BOOM! ?
Well the big question is what about all those Chinese loans that came from 'Shadow banking'? I wonder how many of them were used for property purchase here in Auckland? China has been clamping down on this activity as part of its Capital Control measure, so I'd expect to see quite a lot of mortgagee property coming on to the market in the next few months.
Wow I just ran a quick check on Trademe there's 6 of them already (For Auckland), two listed today!
From BBC article: This week, state media reported that a clampdown on shadow banking in China uncovered $30bn (£23bn) worth of illegal banking activity. It may seem a staggering figure, but analysts say this is just the tip of the iceberg.
BBC Article: 'Gangster grannies' and China's shadow banking world
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37114643
I think I might have been wrong (not totally convinced yet, though)...it does look like Auckland prices are in decline. I am going to keep watching the trend... When Big Daddy is questioning Barfoots as potentially publishing 'fake news,' that's got me ears up... or is he referring to to Interest.co.nz?
Though this in the Herald at the moment -http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=117…
They saying prices have firmed in January.
Been reading comments but overseas at the moment enjoying summer that we haven't really had in ChCh so far this year.
The markets are going to be slow due to the alteration in the LVRs.
It affects most investors as well as private buyers.
It is election year so the govt. needs to look good so if the housing market is flat it won't look great and it also affects business and tax take.
Interesting times for all and it will be good if the market does flatten out for awhile as it certainly creates more opportunity providing you have access to further funds.
Been reading comments but overseas at the moment enjoying summer that we haven't really had in ChCh so far this year.
The markets are going to be slow due to the alteration in the LVRs.
It affects most investors as well as private buyers.
It is election year so the govt. needs to look good so if the housing market is flat it won't look great and it also affects business and tax take.
Interesting times for all and it will be good if the market does flatten out for awhile as it certainly creates more opportunity providing you have access to further funds.
Been reading comments but overseas at the moment enjoying summer that we haven't really had in ChCh so far this year.
The markets are going to be slow due to the alteration in the LVRs.
It affects most investors as well as private buyers.
It is election year so the govt. needs to look good so if the housing market is flat it won't look great and it also affects business and tax take.
Interesting times for all and it will be good if the market does flatten out for awhile as it certainly creates more opportunity providing you have access to further funds.
Slightly early prediction but oh they were so right! 12 Reasons Why New Zealand's Economic Bubble Will End In Disaster!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessecolombo/2014/04/17/12-reasons-why-new-…
A few thousand dollars drop in property price's is not much of a prediction to house falls, market is only flatting out as investors have pulled out, months ago, what you see now with the market is the reaction of the restrictions. Migration is at its peak and still going, not to mention NZ own population growth, also inflation. Even with no investors transactions are still taking place, not everyone can wait with selling or purchasing property and for that very reason the market may stay flat but it will maintain its price, for now.
I Don't think there is going to be a sudden boom anytime soon, as far as any major correction, very doubtful. At the end of it all you cant go wrong with investing in property (anywhere) you will always gain in long term, despite of any short time changes, and the biggest reason for that is, more people come into this world then people leaving.
Its wierd first time in forever in a region here no offers on a house I saw and I was asked if I want to put offer in under what they wanted. Saw another place drop its price, and another. All rentals. Its stupid because now I can't be stuffed looking for house. The fun has gone from it, because it was such a mess last year and people panic buying, now its like OK I have no more energy to even look. And then in another suburb agents are jacking the price up, and its like, uh this asking price is higher than something nicer and closer to town, get out of here!
I can completely relate to burn out. I bought in 2014 and I spent an intensive month visiting a very large number of properties over a wide area. As I put in low offers I have no doubt a number of the RE agents I dealt with probably didn't tell the vendor about my offer. Damn exhausting spending your weekends doing this when there are better things to do with you life.
Vendors and RE agents need to learn how to negotiate, some didn't even bother trying because they were useless.
Now it's a buyers market and I've told a number of people to not buy until things settle down. Who wants to pay peak prices?
I have not put in low offers. Still missed out. It was insane and I just don't have the energy left to bother. But it is interesting to see a few drop their price, even if its not that many. And not selling on the first open home day... and yet I go to another suburb which has been cheaper in the past, and now the agents are asking for the same price as something closer to town, which is just stupid. I really don't like agents!
Dry -guy say you've done well out of the Auck prop market
OK is that on paper or real cash ?
Sitting on property hoping isn't taking a profit it's wishful thinking
Smart people have cashed out and are waiting for decline but I do agree property is tangible and that's great if GFC2 comes
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