The largest real estate company in Auckland says the housing market is showing definite signs of "green shoots" with a sharp rise in sales compared with a year ago - although prices are still lower.
Barfoot & Thompson, which sells about one in three Auckland houses, is now describes the housing market there as being in recovery.
It says sales rose by 55% to 891 houses sold in June, compared with the same month last year.
But house prices fell over 2% in the month, which Barfoot says is because of a traditional winter decline.
Managing director Peter Thompson expects a slight slowdown in the number of sales over July and August due to winter, picking up in September.
