The number of properties sold in April may have been down to only 22 percent of last April’s volumes, but there were record sale prices of over $10 million and nearly $8 million.
It shows that real estate agents were still able to bring vendors and buyers together to close a $10.7 million deal in Auckland's North Shore and another for $7.68 million in the city's high-end suburb of Remuera, according to data released by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.
Another Auckland city deal went unconditional at $4.92 million, the figures show.
While these high prices were achieved, overall sales in the region dropped 78 percent on the hot pre-lockdown March sales.
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While sales drops were a given, as lockdown to Level 4 deemed in-person viewings and sales completion non-essential, REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said the figures were better than expected, adding that there was a lot more activity towards the end of April moving into Level 3.
Despite lockdown starting in March, 538 properties still completed sales in Auckland and another 767 around the country, a total of 1305 according to today’s REINZ figures.
This compares to 7328 properties sold in March and 6082 in April last year.
In Auckland, sales in the North Shore and old Auckland City were less affected than other parts of the city: 172 properties went unconditional in Auckland City, 102 on North Shore City and 92 in Manukau. This may continue in May.
“With more than half of the country’s new listings in April in Auckland, it suggests that perhaps Auckland may be the first region to find its ‘new normal in the next few months,” Norwell said.
The heat also stayed in the Tauranga market, with a Papamoa property changing hands for $2.3 million and another in the city fetching $4.92 million
But the gloss had completely gone off the luxury Queenstown market, with the top sale in the Otago region reaching only $1.1 million.
The rest of the South Island was also affected. Southland sales volume was down 95 percent on last April and Nelson’s 91 percent.
Around the country, about half of April’s property sales were made in the first 10 days of lockdown (656 properties), with just 272 between 11-20 April Easter period. But REINZ pointed to an uplift in the last 10 days of the month with 377 properties sold.
“Over the next few months, it is expected to be steady, however, it will also depend on how long we stay in Level 2, the management of wider economic policies and access to bank lending.”
Norwell said that as agents returned to normal listing and viewing patterns, vendors were listening to feedback and completing deals across various price points. She added there are fewer first home buyers in the market, but anticipates their return to the market with the removal of Loan to Valuation Ratios.
REINZ is closely monitoring the number of new listings coming onto the market during May and is also keeping an eye on the sales price to CV ratio, percentage of auctions and median number of days properties take to sell.
Lower sales volumes, did bring a lift in national median house prices by 17.2 percent to a new record high of $680,000, up from $580,000 in April 2019.
In Auckland, median house prices increased by 9.2 percent to $925,000 up from $847,000 at the same time last year – the second highest price on record.
And in the first green shoots of buyers adapting to the new of virtual auctions technology , 98 properties in Auckland sold under the hammer. At 18 percent of sales, that is not far down from 21 percent of auction sales in April 2019, albeit on much smaller volumes.
