Barfoot & Thompson's auction numbers have started to dip ahead of the Christmas break

By Greg Ninness

Barfoot & Thompson's auction rooms are showing the first tentative signs of the market starting to slow ahead of the Christmas/New Year break.

The agency processed 324 residential properties at auction in the week from December 5-11, down from 354 the previous week, bringing an end to more than a month of steadily increasing auction numbers.

Barfoot's Orders of Sale suggest around 300 properties will be auctioned this week.

The sales rate dropped back slightly as well to 53%, after remaining stuck in the 57% to 60% range for the past several weeks.

Unusually, there were also half a dozen properties withdrawn from auction, compared to no withdrawals over the previous three weeks.

The sales rate was particularly strong for Papakura properties for the second week in a row, with a 70% sales rate, following 93% sales rate the previous week.

Properties on the North Shore brought up the rear, with a 40% sales rate compared to 57% the previous week.

But overall, the auction rooms remained extremely busy and it's likely some agencies will continue to be holding auctions in the few days before Christmas this year.

Details of the individual properties auctioned and the results achieved are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

This story was originally published on Interest.co.nz and has been republished here with permission.