Auckland's top-end house sales suffered a 27 per cent fall in the $3 million-plus category and a 17 per cent drop in the $1m plus bracket in the last year.
Real Estate Institute data showed an 11 per cent national sales volume drop in $1m plus sales between this year's first half and last year, from 5591 sales to 4963 sales.
But Auckland's fall was greater: $1m plus Auckland house sales dropped from 4185 in last year's first half to 3463 in this year's first half, $3m plus sales dropped from 205 sales to 150 and $5m plus sales dropped from 43 sales to 28.
Bindi Norwell, REINZ chief executive, said: "We typically expect to see Auckland performing relatively well in our million dollar price report, so it's interesting to see a 17.3 per cent drop in sales of million-dollar-plus homes so far this year.
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"However, when you look at the bigger picture, it aligns with the shift we've been seeing over the past few months as Aucklanders continue to search for more affordable properties and lifestyles in various regions and median prices in the region have stabilised."
She wondered if Auckland top-end sales would recover soon, saying confidence was returning to areas of the market.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan says: "This segment of the market has been underperforming in Auckland for some time now. The percentage of total sales above the $1 million price bracket is consistently below the percentage of housing stock valued at $1 million or above.
"The energy in the Auckland market is in the sub-$1 million bracket, which appeals to first-time buyers, who represent the biggest share of new mortgage registrations.
"The impact of this at a suburb level can sometimes be misleading as it may appear a suburb is declining or collapsing in value, when in fact there has simply been a bigger share of lower priced housing selling."
"That houses in higher price brackets are not selling as quickly or for as much as they used to is down to a combination of factors. Many homeowners who would have otherwise come to market are deciding to hold onto their properties and renovate instead. Some vendors are still hanging their hat on the CV number, and buyers can now afford to pass on $1 million-plus homes that have clear drawbacks, such as build issues."
Outside Auckland, the Bay of Plenty region was a strong performer, recording an 11% increase in the number of houses sold over one million dollars - yet the region saw a 166.7 per cent rise in the sale of 3 million dollar plus properties, with five additional sales in the first half of 2019.
However, despite steady growth across the board for many of the regions, a handful suffered decreases in the number of 3 million dollar plus properties sold. This included:
Canterbury – 71.4% decline (5 fewer houses sold),
Otago – 41.7% decline (5 fewer houses sold),
Wellington – 40% decline (2 fewer houses sold),
Overall, 4,963 houses within the one million plus category were sold, down 628 on the first half of the year.
Barfoot & Thompson said that in June, 89 per cent of its sales were over $500,000, 71 per cent were over $750,000 and 44 per cent were over $1m. Only 12.3 per cent of the June sales for that agency were over $2m.
- New Zealand Herald
