13 Jul 2015

Auckland market pushes up house prices

1:04 pm on 13 July 2015

Auckland's rampant housing market has again pushed house prices higher in the last year.

Though national median prices across the country dipped last month, they were still more than 5 percent up on the same month last year.

Real Estate sold sign

House prices are higher than last year despite a dip in June. Photo: RNZ/Eileen Cameron

Figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show the national median price rose rose by $23,000 (5.4 percent) to $450,000 in the year to June. That price was 2.2 percent lower than in May.

Auckland's median price surged 26 percent from $600,000 in June last year to $755,000 this year.

"We're down to 10 weeks supply and that will continue to put pressure on prices across Auckland," said the institute's chief executive Colleen Milne. "It's just lack of supply."

Ms Milne said the figures showed more people were starting to buy houses outside the city centre, in areas such as Rodney and North Shore.

Million dollar houses

The number of homes sold for more than $1 million more than doubled in the year, to 835.

These sales now make up more than 11 percent of the total nationwide.

Overall, the number of sales surged by nearly a third over the year.

In June, a total of 7426 dwellings sold, up 29.2 percent on June 2014 and down 7 percent from May.

The total value of houses sold in the 12 months to June was a record $46.3 billion.

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