Harcourts' northern data shows 17pc price jump

Photo / Doug Sherring

Sales data out this morning for the Auckland and Northland regions from New Zealand's biggest real estate agency showed a 17 per cent annual price jump.

Harcourts has just released its figures and that showed February sales prices hit a high of $899,681.

"Provisional data for the northern region shows stock levels continue to be down, sitting at only 1637 residential houses available to buy in Auckland and Northland in February, down 8.1 per cent on the same time in 2015," a company statement said.

Also this week, Barfoot & Thompson figures showed 2060 new listings in February, more than double January's 919 and the highest since August last year. At the end of February, Barfoot had 3318 property listings available, well up on January's 2574 listings. It sold 698 properties last month, down on January's 893 sales.

The median residential price fell from $760,000 in January to $738,000 last month. But the average rose from $811,700 to $822,024.

Figures also out this week from realestate.co.nz showed asking prices for residential properties hit records in the Coromandel, Hawke's Bay, Otago and Auckland.

The Coromandel's record high was $579,676, up on the previous high of $574,271.
Hawke's Bay's high of $389,654 recorded in February was up from the previous record of $387,504 set in August.

Otago's was $323,367 in February, up on the previous record of $321,188 set in October last year.

Auckland's high of $866,080 was up from the $851,531 previous record set five months ago in September last year.

Chris Kennedy, Harcourts chief executive, said auctions were strong.

"High demand, low supply and the competition this results in is pushing prices ever higher at auction," he said.

Talk of a dip in the property market was not at all backed up by Harcourts' figures, he said.

"The only issue we have is a shortage of new listings. If you are holding back on listing your property because you believe prices have taken a downward turn, you should reconsider," he said.

In early February, Harcourts' data for the Auckland and Northland regions showed an average price of $801,662.

Kennedy says Auckland Council's decision to revert to its 2013 version of the Unitary Plan, which will provide for just 80,000 new homes by 2040, had not done Auckland any favours.

"Close to 300,000 new houses are needed in that time period. There will be no easing of prices while there are not enough houses being built," Kennedy said.