Housing recovery seen

Fairfax Media

There are signs of a recovery in the housing sector - with more buyers and sellers entering the market.

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Leading Auckland real estate firm Barfoot and Thompson says there are signs of a recovery in the housing sector - with more buyers and sellers entering the market.

The firm, which says it handles around one in every three Auckland homes sold, said today the average price of houses changing hands last month - $512,536 - was a 3.5 per cent increase on the same month a year ago. It was also 2 per cent higher than the average in January this year.

In February Barfoot & Thompson sold 559 homes, up 8.9 percent on sales in January, and the first time in four years that February sales have been higher than in the preceding January.

The firm listed 1470 new homes, up 50.8 per cent on those listed in January. While down 28.3 per cent on those listed for sale in the same month last year, February 2008’s listings were the highest in any month for more than two years.

"On all three key indicators of houses sold, average price and number of new listings, February was positive and encouraging," managing director Peter Thompson said.

"The average price achieved of $512,536 in February is the highest average price ever achieved in a February, the highest average achieved in the past four months, and the first time in 13 months that the average price has been higher than its comparative month in the previous year."

National housing figures for February will be released within the next week or so and there will be keen interest in whether the apparent signs of stabilisation in the market from today's figures are carried through on a national level.

There have been instances in the past year when monthly sales have appeared to show an improving trend, only for the next month's figures to be appreciably worse.

At a national level the January figures were particularly weak. The Real Estate Institute recorded the lowest level of sales - 3706 - in at least 17 years.

REINZ, which bases its figures on sales as they are reported by agents, said the average sale price was down 4.4 per cent in January compared with the same month a year earlier.

However, Quotable Value, which reports sales after they have gone through final settlement, said that according to its data prices were down 8.3 per cent in January compared with the same period a year earlier.

Thompson said he believed the combination of lower interest rates, awareness of the low number of residential building permits being granted, and the general growth of the Auckland region were contributing to "this modest turn around" shown in Barfoot & Thompson's latest figures.

Rental demand remained strong, he said, with 786 houses and units let during February, only five rentals lower than in January, which is traditionally the most active month, and 10.1 percent higher than in February last year.

Average rentals, at $380 a week, were "consistent" with the rents being achieved in January, and in February last year.

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