Harcourts franchise says North Shore property market hot

Fri, 25 Sep 2009

The North Shore property market is booming, with considerable demand from a wide range of buyer types and a marked increase in sales occurring, according to local Harcourts business owner Martin Cooper.

The Principal of Harcourts’ franchise Cooper & Co, which operates seven offices on the North Shore, says the latest Real Estate Institute of New Zealand statistics showed there was a huge increase in sales last month when compared with August 2008 and according to his group’s figures September is also proving very active.

“According to the REINZ statistics 454 North Shore houses were sold in August, which was a massive 89% up on the same month last year, while from our own figures for September and the anecdotal feedback from our team the North Shore market is continuing to run hot this month, with a lot of buyer demand and a considerable amount of sales being made.”

Mr Cooper says auctions have proven to be the most successful method of sale.

“According to our group’s August figures we had an 84.3% success rate through the auction process – with 72.5% sold prior to or on auction day and 11.8% sold within 14 days of their auction date. That’s a fantastic result and a credit to the sales consultants and auctioneers in our group who work together to achieve such successful auction campaigns.”

Mr Cooper says a wide range of buyers are actively looking on the North Shore and therefore there is considerable competition for property.

“According to our own data first-home buyers are the largest group of people looking for North Shore property but they are closely followed by investors and there is also a significant amount of competition from people moving into the area, along with new immigrants and ex-pats returning.”

This wide range of buyers has strong interest in all price brackets up to around $900,000, and with the high level of demand around some excellent prices are being achieved which in turn is enabling many sellers to ‘trade up’.

“Harcourts Cooper and Co team has also sold an impressive 14 properties in the past month priced in excess of $1 million, indicating the top end of the market is waking up again.”