Homes in Auckland are selling at such a rate that the number of homes for sale at the end of July was the lowest in seven years, a leading real estate company says.

Barfoot and Thompson, which makes about a third of all residential sales in Auckland, said they sold 998 properties in July and were left with 3975 properties on their books at the end of the month- the lowest level since 2005.

Managing director Peter Thompson said the "low number of properties for sale is being caused by high turnover, not by the low number of people listing properties for sale".

"In July we listed 1295 properties, 23.3 per cent more than in the same month last year. However, demand in July was exceptionally strong and we sold 28.3 percent more homes in July than in the same month last year.

Thompson said the fast house sales had created a market in which people were prepared to ''act decisively''.

The average sale price for the houses was $591,444.
 
"Prices are increasing, but they are not spiralling up. What is out of the ordinary is the number of properties being sold for this time of the year, and the speed at which they are being sold."

He said there continued to be a large number of properties selling for $1million or more, with 82 properties selling in this price range for the month compared to 50 in July last year.

Thompson said that while high value properties attracted most attention, about half of all the sales of properties in Auckland were for less than $500,000.

"In July we sold 498 properties for less than $500,000, which is up 8.7 percent on those for June."

- © Fairfax NZ News

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