We went into lockdown with rising prices and sales volumes were circa average when looking at the longer term trends. The recent data released from The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) for August showed a median North Shore sales price of $1,295.000. This is an increase of 16% when compared to the same period last year.

New Zealand achieved another record median sale price of $850,000.

Given New Zealand was in level 4 lockdown from the 18th of August it is certainly of no surprise that the sales volumes were impacted. The 331 sales achieved on the North Shore in August was approximately 23% down when compared to the same period last year. Median days to sell however do remain low at 34.

Our online auctions at Harcourts Cooper & Co continue to be exceptionally strong during the current lockdown we completed 33 online auctions with 32 of those selling under the virtual hammer. Our auction team in August conducted 79 auctions with an overall success rate of 92%.

Aucklander’s are hopeful that next week we will see a move to level 3. Confidence is high that the market will remain strong as we enter into this usual busy spring selling season.

The current lockdown is likely to have propelled that energy, the built up demand from buyers wanting to purchase, vendors wanting to sell, people needing to move, add to that the fuel of low interest rates, low unemployment and furthermore the confidence in the markets reaction following a lockdown that was evidenced last year, all indicating a very strong finish to the 2021 property market.