Auckland: record rents but market ‘cools’

The Auckland residential property market slowed in January, according to sales figures from real estate company Barfoot & Thompson…

Director Peter Thompson says there was a cooling in the market for the first month of the year, over and above the normal seasonal slow down. The average sale price declined by 7.5% from $559,803 in December 2007, to $517,613 in January 2008. The volume of sales was also light with Barfoot & Thompson negotiating 604 sales in January, compared to 1,003 for the same month last year.

However, he believes it will be another month or two before a clear picture emerges. "It's too early to make predictions about the state of the property market for the remainder of 2008...indications to date are that February is also slow, but we have to take into account the fact that school holidays have lasted a week longer than usual," he says.

There has also been a sharp increase in average weekly rent from a 2007 average of $370 to $396 in January. This is the highest average weekly rent on record: the next highest month was October 2007 when the average was $388.