Harcourts Figures: Sales Up, Listings Low

16 November 2009: Harcourts latest figures show the good volume of written sales that occurred across the country in October was not matched by the traditional upsurge in new listings normally seen in spring according to Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson.

This has ensured that there remains a strong level of competition from buyers for the available properties, he says.

“In turn this is flowing through to the method of sale and marketing being selected, with a continuation of high numbers of sellers choosing high-profile auction marketing campaigns to maximise the benefit of the present buyer competition and to remove the risk of under or over pricing their property.”

Commenting in the latest Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter, Mr Thomson says that overall Harcourts New Zealand completed 53% more written sales last month than in October 2008, ranging from an 80% increase in the group’s Northern region to a 31% increase in its Wellington region.

To view the latest market watch newsletter please see the following document: http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0911/harcourts.pdf

Mr Thomson says the current imbalance between demand and supply is putting upward pressure on prices and this is reflected in Harcourts New Zealand’s figures which showed in October that average written sales prices were up on the same month in the previous year in three of Harcourts’ five regions, with Harcourts’ Northern region experiencing the greatest increase – in part due to increased activity at the higher end of the market according to Mr Thomson.

Mr Thomson says the amount of property on hand in October was down in three of Harcourts’ regions when compared to the same month last year, and it will be interesting to see what the trend is in November.

“Looking ahead we expect strong levels of interest from residential property buyers to continue in the lead-up to Christmas and for this to continue to impact on prices, to the degree of that effect dependant on how many new listings there are. Meanwhile, in terms of rural property, good news regarding the increased milk solids payout to dairy farmers should have a positive impact on the stalled farm market,” he says.

ENDS

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