Auckland property market surges: listings jump to set new annual record

Buying an apartment is a good way to get your foot on the property ladder but with so many on offer how do you know what will increase in value over time?

New Auckland residential for-sale listings by the city's largest realtors jumped by a third from September and October, according to Barfoot & Thompson which said that set the scene for a more "active" market in the run to the year's end.

Listings jumped from 1204 in September to 1605 last month - the highest on record this year, with March the second busiest month of 2019 and 1571 listings.

"A feature of the market since March has been the modest number of properties being listed, and by the start of October, the number of properties on the market was at its lowest for more than two years," the agency said.

"In October that changed, with new listings being a third higher than in September, and more than 40 per cent higher than the average for the previous three months."

Committed buyers had returned to the market with sales for the month increasing to 824, up 6.9 per cent on those for the previous month and 3.1 per cent higher than the average for the previous three months.

Prices also edged up with the average price at $939,132 increasing by 1.6 per cent on the average for the previous three months and the median price at $845,000 up by 2.2 per cent on the average for the previous three months.

Peter Thompson, Barfoot & Thompson managing director, said it was a smooth, steady acceleration as the marked emerged from the winter season.

"October's data signals both vendors and buyers are coming to accept is that the market conditions that have prevailed for more than two years now are the new norm, and that there is no big price increases or major price declines on the horizon," he said.

"Some 30 per cent of all the homes we sold in October were for in excess of $1 million, with 9.5 per cent of that number being for in excess of $2 million. Top-end values are not proving a barrier to sales," Thompson said.

At the end of October, the agency hit a three-month high with 3820 properties on its books. But that was 20 per cent down on the same time a year ago, Thompson said.

The agency's data is the first out this month: information from Quotable Value is due out soon, followed by the Real Estate Institute, whose data is usually issued around the middle of each month.

Dominick Stephens, Westpac chief economist, has picked a solid housing market rebound in 2020, including a resurgence in the Auckland market, which has drifted backwards for the past two years.

Westpac has had that call in place since May when the capital gains tax proposal was dropped.