Agency's data on prices and sales volumes for August is out. Photo/ supplied
Agency's data on prices and sales volumes for August is out. Photo/ supplied
Sales by Auckland's largest real estate agency, Barfoot & Thompson, were a third down last month because of the city's lockdown.
"Based on weekly sales data, sales numbers are two-thirds of what they might otherwise have been had the lockdown not occurred," the agency's managing director Peter Thompson said today.
Average prices dropped, from July's $1.183 million to August's $1.181m.
Agents worked for 14 lockdown days last month, severely restricted under the city's alert level 4 which began just before midnight on Tuesday August 17.
But in a sales commentary, Thompson said: "The current Covid-19 lockdown Auckland is under had a small dampening effect but no significant impact on the region's residential property sales in August.
Peter Thompson, the agency's managing director. Photo / Ted Baghurst
"Sales and prices stood up extremely well during the first two weeks of the lockdown, and a major reason for this is the systems and procedures the industry and other professions such as banking and legal have put in place to enable trading to carry on during lockdowns.
"This enabled vendors and buyers to progress negotiations and contractual proceedings around properties that had been viewed prior to the lockdown commencing.":
In Auckland, no open homes can be held, no auctions staged at properties, no appraisals done in person at a home considered for listing, no listings secured on-site and real estate agency offices are shut.
No one can move house, rent inspections can only be done online and all residential construction is halted on thousands of sites across the city.
That has raised alarm, particularly amongst residential building bosses who fear the effects on some people paying two mortgages: one for the house they live in now and a second for a new house under construction.
Thompson said 1020 last month were "excellent for a winter month. If you exclude last year, when the market was still recovering from last year's two-month lockdown, sales were more than 20 percent higher than we normally achieve in August".
Three trends emerged last month in urban and rural markets, he said.
• The number of virtual appraisals and viewings taking place through the use of new technology;
• The number of appointments being made for viewings when the agency moved to a level that allowed them to take place;
• People looking to get ahead of the market by committing to buying sight unseen but adding a clause reserving the right to inspect and approve within three or four days of lockdown being lifted.
"These developments are assisting the market to move forward while under lockdown," Thompson said.
Sales in the rural and lifestyle markets throughout the Northland and Auckland regions were largely unaffected, with sales in dollar terms being their highest in 18 months.
In the Far North, interest remained high in beef and dairy listings, while to the north and south of Auckland, buyers were in the market for kiwifruit and avocado farms and potential greenfield developments, Thompson said.
The Herald reported last month on how alert level 4 was weighing on activity across New Zealand's $1.5 trillion housing market, with around 1600 weekly sales usually occurring at this time of the year worth about $1.6b.
But economist Tony Alexander warns to also prepare for a post-lockdown surge of frustrated buyers, with the alert level causing a further property listing drought.
Real Estate Institute data shows more than 1600 residences would usually have been sold in a week around August.
Ray White agents marketing the four Block NZ homes delivered said a live auction set for September 5 would be delayed due to Covid.
Nick Goodall, CoreLogic NZ research head, said agency work pulled up sharp after mid-August when the alert level 4 was declared.
"Tracking of early market indicators, like appraisals generated by agents using Property Guru and RPNZ, shows real estate agent activity has dropped by 52 per cent compared to the week before lockdown," Goodall said.
OneRoof's new index, developed by its data partner Valocity, shows there is still heat in the market despite recent interventions aimed at slowing growth. Property values across the country grew 5 per cent in the three months to the end of August, pushing the national average property value to $983,000
