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An abundance of caution back in April has been followed by a more buoyant market in May. However, an upswing in urban areas hasn’t quite been felt in rural Franklin.
“The rural and lifestyle markets did not experience the bounce experienced by the Auckland metropolitan market,” Barfoot & Thompson’s Peter Thompson asserts. “While still a healthy $47.4million, sales were subdued when compared with those for March and April.”
Thanks to urban properties, Barfoot’s sales for the month were up more than a quarter on those for April, the median price ($980,000) was 2.6 per cent higher and the average price ($1,157,213) was 2.3 per cent higher.
“Buyers decided that they had been over cautious in April, and returned to the market in strength in May,” Thompson says.
“The market returned to the modest growth we saw in the first quarter of the year and is performing more positively than during the first five months of 2025. It is encouraging to see the market displaying such resilience.”
However, the increase in May may not be a true reflection of the shape of things to come, especially during winter, in an election year and with a War still on the boil.
“Rather than being a pointer for sales activity for the remainder of the year, April’s rather muted sales performance may well be an overreaction, with buyers following the Reserve Bank’s lead in ‘seeing through’ the economic impact of the Middle East conflict.”
Compared to the same time last year, the median price is up (5.5 per cent) and there were only two months in 2025 when it exceeded May 2026’s value of $980,000.
While buyers in the $2 million plus bracket were strongly represented in May’s result, those in the under $750,000 price category represented 20 per cent of Barfoot’s total sales overall.
For more information, including the latest figures, click here.
