The Auckland property market in April was active, with prices remaining at the top end of the range for the past 12 months.

“In April property held on to the solid prices achieved in March, with the average sales price for the month being $568,018, only $3000 lower than the average price in March,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“It shows that March’s big jump in prices over those for February was no one off spike. What did change between April and March was the number of homes sold.

“Sales numbers fell back to 750. This is consistent with the number of homes sold in April last year, but is 39.8 percent lower than in March.

“New listings for the month at 1266 were also solid, but were down 17.6 percent on those for March. At month’s end we had only 4621 homes on our books throughout Auckland, the lowest number in four months and 17.2 percent lower than at the same time last year.

“This underlines the extent to which there is a lack of choice available to potential home buyers.”

Mr Thompson said that March and April normally represented the high point of summer sales activity.

“Prices and sales volume tend to ease as we move deeper into autumn.

“Given the high level of buyer interest in the market and the low level of choice, prices are likely to hold firm through May.

“For three of the four months of this year, the average sales price for the month has been higher than the corresponding month last year.

“The price increase has ranged from 4.2 percent in April to 2.7 percent in January and February. In March, the corresponding price difference was a fall of 1.7 percent.

“However, prices are not running hot and prices being achieved above realistic valuations are the exception and not the norm.”