Spring in September, But feels Like Summer in The Auckland Market
The low-interest rates, steady house prices, and confidence in the market has lead to an unprecedented strong September, as records are broken and the idea of COVID affecting the market is nowhere to be seen.
The strong level of residential auction activity that was evident at the end of August has continued in the first two weeks of September, with an overall sales success rate of 75% on 205 residential auctions monitored around the country in the first week of spring.
In the second week of September (7-13 September) the number of properties auctioned lifted to 222 and the sales rate dipped slightly to 72%.That meant that over the first two weeks of September the total number of properties offered at auctions monitored by interest.co.nz was 427, compared to 299 in the comparable two week period (2-15 September) of last year.
This only continued to rise in the last week of September, where 313 residential properties were offered up at auctions, which is up 41% compared to the 222 auctions monitored the previous week (7-13 September), and up by 79% compared to the equivalent week of last year.
But just as tellingly, the number of auctions monitored last week was more than in the week of 18-24 November last year, which was in the middle of the pre-Christmas summer selling season. It was also getting close to the 363 monitored at the peak of last summer’s selling season (2-8 March 2020) before the country went into the Level 4 pandemic lockdown.
And it’s not just the number of properties up for sale that’s worth noting, sales levels and prices have also continued to see unprecedented success.
Sales were achieved on 222 of the 313 properties at last week’s auctions, giving an overall sales rate of 71%, almost unchanged from 72% the previous week and well up from the 51% sales rate in the equivalent week of last year.
When comparing the selling prices of the properties sold at the auctions monitored with their corresponding rating valuations, 88% sold for more than their rating valuations, compared with 86% over the first two weeks of September and 67% in the equivalent week of last year.