Welcome to our Monthly North Shore wrap for July. To view the full report click here.

The short story (a summary of below)
On the coal front things are looking positive, prices are pretty stable and volumes have stabilised, for the month anyway. Whether that’s just a good month of increased sales, or a change in the trend, we are yet to see.  Days on market hasn’t changed still out around the 44 day mark across Auckland and the Shore, whilst in the Auction rooms B&T killed it last week with a record 64% result.  We cleared a solid 40% (residential) and we finally saw an increase in the level of stock available on the Shore after months of decreases. 

To add to the positivity we see ahead of us, my service providers are very busy, I’m really busy, which means a lot of people are probably busy.  More stock is coming as Spring approaches.

In This Week’s Market Wrap
– On the Coalfront
– Market Performance
– Auction Results
– Listings & Stock Availability
– Coming Soon

On the Coalfront
Properties seem to be mostly selling around expectations (when based on the current environment), unlike 6 months ago when everything was going below expectation as Vendors (and agents) struggled to keep up with the market shift.  Buyers also generally seem to be wanting to get on with it and just buy.  They still generally don’t feel as pressured, and are still quite happy to shop around, but when the right house is found, they are buying with more confidence and are happy to negotiate, as long as the price is fair and reasonable.  All in all though, things feel much more positive – and almost normal.

Market Performance
Median Prices – The section at the peak of everybody’s interest – what are prices doing?  Well not much!  We saw exactly the same as last year in July $830,000 for Auckland, $985,000 on the Shore.  I have to say, prices across Auckland haven’t done bugger all for years.  On the North Shore it’s a different story, whilst prices are now only slightly down year on year.  The current quarter vs a year ago -1.84%, the current 6 month period vs. year ago -2.08%. So we are down, but not by much and the decline has definitely slowed and stabilised.  At one point these falls were around 5-6% so 1% is definitely an improvement.

The REINZ Housing Price Index data shows are very similar picture, it was down year on year on the Shore by about 4%, but we saw an improvement of 1.3% on June 2019 which is positive.

Volume of Sales– The number of properties sold in July across Auckland and here on the North Shore, actually increased!! Haven’t said that for a while – year on year we actually saw an increase of 6.6% to 1894 sales across Auckland, and 7.2% with 297 on the North Shore.  We did actually start to see volumes begin to increase again in the later half of last year, before… Well we all know what happened. This is a positive sign but a good month doesn’t make a good time, so let’s keep an eye on this. We are still miles off the heights of 2015 where in July 3015 properties were sold in Auckland  and 457 here on the Shore. Nearly 60% more than our current levels.  And actually a wee reminder, that’s how long volumes have been decreasing now year on year – this didn’t just start a year or 2 ago, it’s been 4 years of relatively consistent falls in the volume of property sold.  Why?  Loads of reasons but I’d say affordability has played a big part in that.

Days on Market – Not a lot of change in this department, 44 days across both Auckland and the Shore.  It’s been like this for about 3 months now so no big changes.  I would say though that I suspect the next round of results to be better, I think the market generally feels more active than what these stats represent.  But remember stats will always lag behind what is actually happening as this is what has happened, not necessarily what is happening.

Auction Results
The tables were turned last week, with B&T delivering what I’m guessing is their best result in around 2 years, clearing 64% under the hammer last week selling 9/14.  I do have there data going back to October 2017, but we have a missed a week here and there so maybe it’s not THE best, but it’s certainly one of them.  Great work and a brilliant result!  Harcourts on the other hand dropped away after 3 very solid weeks clearing just 31%, but we still hold a 4 week average of 57% which is pretty good.

All in all I think the results of the auctions over the past few weeks show some real positivity in the market.

Weekly Results
Harcourts C&C – 40% Clearance Rate (4/10)  Residential Sales
Barfoot* – 64% Clearance Rate (9/14)

4 Week Average Per Company
Harcourts C&C – 57% Clearance Rate (25/44)
Barfoot* – 34% Clearance Rate (26/77)

Combined Clearance Rates*
4 week average 42%
This Week 48% (2018 – 36%)

* Harcourts Cooper & Co and B&T In-Room Auctions.  *Source: Barfoot website – Thursday In-Room Results
Please note clearance rates are for properties sold under the hammer or post negotiation that day (sales the following day are not included)

Listings & Stock Availability
1346 properties available on the Shore this week, up for the first time in months indicating that the Spring listing surge may have begun!  I’m picking that things are about to get much busier very quick and there is quite of lot of new stock coming.  Why?  First I’m really busy, which means others will be as well.  But my best barometer of market activity – how busy is my photo/video agency?  And they are flat out after being pretty quiet through winter.  More properties getting ready, more new listings about to hit the market.  Positive stuff! 

Coming Soon
Campbells Bay – A fantastic modern family home with awesome entertaining and pool
Forrest Hill – A stunning fully renovated 4bed family home with awesome entertaining & pool Browns Bay – 2 houses on freehold sites, and some land
Bayswater – Talk to me – we have a few homes coming in a couple of months
Forrest Hill – A very tidy renovated 3 bed 2 bath
Belmont – A basic home on a large freehold site
 

That’s it from me.  If you have any questions as always just give me a call, otherwise we look forward to seeing you out and about this weekend! Go the All Blacks!!!