In the month of August, Auckland hit its ninth record median price in the last 12 month with a new high of $1.2 million, according to the latest data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

The newest record for the Auckland Region beats last year’s August median house price by a whopping 26.4% from $949,500 and up 3% compared to July.

Taking away the most expensive spot in the region is Auckland City, where the median property price for August is sitting at $1.3million with 729 properties sold, which is up from $1.1million a year ago.

Auckland’s growth is spreading across the region with five of the seven districts reaching a new record median price: $1,280,000 in Rodney District, $1,120,000 in Waitakere City, $950,000 in Franklin District, $1,157,000 in Manukau City and $940,000 in Papakura District.

Despite physical auction rooms becoming quiet during level 4 restrictions, virtual auction spaces were thriving as New Zealand had the highest percentage of properties sold via auctions ever for the month of August, REINZ figures show.

Auckland had the highest percentage of auctions across the country with 927 properties, or 39.5% of all properties selling under the hammer including online during Level 4 restrictions. This August’s number is up from 816 or over 30% same time last year and it is the highest number of auctions for the month of August since 2016.

The high auction rate is evident with Ray White’s Auction success rate sitting at 83% in the last week of August despite the lockdown.

In August, the median number of days to sell a property nationally decreased 3 days from 33 days in August 2020, to 30 days in August 2021. Auckland saw the median number of days to sell a property decrease from 34 to 32 – the lowest for an August month since 2016.

Overall, 2346 properties were sold in the Auckland region in August, which is down about three hundred properties from July and about 12% down on last year.

While the number of homes sold across the Auckland Region last month was less than in August 2020, it was still higher than sales from 2016 to 2019.

This indicates that the multiple lockdowns Auckland has experienced over the last 18 months have set the region up well to deal with changes in alert levels, and buyers remained confident to make purchasing decisions during the level 4 restrictions.

With buyer interest remaining strong and inventory levels being at the lowest on record, the market is well poised for a very active selling and buying season ahead.