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PHOTO: Peter Thompson – Barfoot & Thompson

The Auckland property market ended the year edging towards its first decline in prices for ten years.

“In the past few months the tide has turned towards it becoming a buyers’ market,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“The over-riding market sentiment at present is indecision as to the direction the market is heading.

“A range of factors contributed to market uncertainty at year end. These included non New Zealand residents being restricted from buying certain categories of property, the reported major decline of property prices in the major Australian cities, the potential for capital gains to be applied to investment properties in the future and concerns over world economic stability, in part caused by the trade friction between the United States and China.

“The sales data for December masks that trend but it shows up clearly in the year-on-year figures between 2018 and 2017.

“In December, the point was reached where it was vendors that were prepared to meet the market who were achieving a sale while those holding out for their asking price were not.

January 2019 housing market update

Time period	Number of sales*	Total value of sales
Jan 2018	504 properties	$478,957,461
Jan 2017	674 properties	$633,473,499
12 months to Jan 2018	9,779 properties	$9,086,554,984
12 months to Jan 2017	9,037 properties	$8,418,106,220