PHOTO: KEVIN STENT/STUFF Kelvin Davidson said the real estate market had been picking up steadily since the country shifted to level 3.
Auckland real estate agency Barfoot & Thompson says sales numbers returned to normal in June while prices held stable – but research firm Corelogic is warning there may be a “reality check” coming.
Barfoot & Thompson reported 820 sales by its agents in June, 4.3 per cent more than the same time a year earlier.
The agency’s average sale price was $943,417, 1.4 per cent up year-on-year.
“Taken in isolation, the month’s trading was very much ‘business as usual’,” said managing director Peter Thompson.
“What contributed to the robustness of the market in June was solid new listings at 1582, 56.3 per cent higher than in the same month last year; an influx of first-time buyers; and undoubtedly some catch-up business from the slow sales in May.
“It is far too early to see this result as an indicator that the property market will defy forecasts and ride out the Covid-19 pandemic unaffected.
“It does suggest that over a three- to five-year time horizon buyers have confidence in property at today’s prevailing prices and that they are not holding back in the hope of a major decline in values.”
He said the 4001 properties on the agency’s books was the highest number in 12 months.
But Kelvin Davidson, an economist at Corelogic, said a survey of users of its Property Guru platform, largely real estate agents, was a reality check on some of the positive stories emerging about the property market.
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