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A lift in residential auction activity early this year suggests a strong start to the peak summer selling season

Property
A lift in residential auction activity early this year suggests a strong start to the peak summer selling season

There was a substantial increase in residential property auction activity in January compared to January last year, which suggests a buoyant start to the peak summer selling season.

January is usually a quiet month for auctions, with almost no activity in the first two weeks of the month when the market is all but closed down for the New Year break.

However there's usually a trickle of auctions in the second half of the month and then activity builds steadily as it heads towards March, usually the busiest month of the year for the residential property market.

Last month interest.co.nz monitored 136 residential property auctions, which was up 70% on January last year.

Not only were more properties brought to auction than a year ago but a higher proportion of them were sold, with just over half (53%) of the properties selling under the hammer or immediately after the auction in January, compared to a sales rate of just under a third (31%) in January last year.

Prices also appeared firmer.

Where a property's selling price could be matched with its Rating Valuation (RV), 73% sold for more than their RVs last month compared to 43% in January last year.

So although January was still a relatively quiet month for auction activity compared to other months of the year, those early results are pointing towards a fairly sold lift in sales activity over the coming few months.

The results of individual property auctions are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

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33 Comments

People moving for school and work, and its summer prime sales time. Stock is still low and choices are limited.

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CJ099, any comments ...LOL

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LOL at you Yavil, My earlier posted comment still stands: And you are still trying to distract away from poor sales in Auckland's exclusive and over priced suburbs aren't you Yavil. Shall I tell you how may properties sold at auction this January (According to this website): In Remuera it was the grand total of 1, in Parnell 0, Epsom 1, St Heliers 0, Newmarket 1, Freemans Bay 1, Mission Bay 0 and the list goes on to similar results for Auckland's exclusive suburbs. A far cry for the hay day (2016) where everything there was selling at auction only a few years ago. Go check the auction results for you're self and you'll see that I'm right.

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heyday is a noun which refers to a time when something or someone was in its prime or at the height of its power or influence.

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Hmmm whose data do we believe, Interest.co.nz or CJ099…? I'll stick with Interest, you stick with CJ-land

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LOL x 2!! The data that I've listed is from Interest.co.nz Yavil. Wow you are really desperate to twist the facts. Got look at the auction results on this site and stop being silly.

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Oh and just to add as well there were some whopper price drops in those Auckland exclusive/ overpriced areas according to the auction data here; Check out 26 Ponsonby Terrace, Ponsonby, Auckland City. RV $4,150,000 (July '17), and Sold for: $2,091,000.

AKL City apartments still not selling well either: 819/135 Hobson St, Auckland Central. RV $200,000 (July '17), and Sold for: $128,500.
* 712/135 Hobson St, Auckland Central RV $180,000 and Sold for: $125,000.
* 6E/82 Wakefield Street, City Centre RV $350,000 (July '17) and Sold for: $170,000.

Bit difficult to tell what's going on with some of the latest auction results, since they're not listing the actual "sold price" only listing the RV rating value? Guess they we're bad results. The upshot of it is, it's really only the affordable and good properties that seem to be selling well, from what we can see from the auction results here.

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I take an interest in some properties in Remuera and surrounding suburbs. Here are a couple of (non-auction) sales from around November that caught my eye. I rely on sites like qv.co.nz to find out the final sale price, hence the time lag.

8A Dromorne Road, Remuera. CV 3.4m sold for 3.705m. Very nice house that made the most of a smallish block (525sqm). Super handy location even if on "wrong side" of Remuera Rd.

5 Sharpe Road, Epsom. CV 3.425m sold for 3.96m. Sold for 3.42 in 2016, but I think it'd been renovated since so doubt they made much. Beautiful place, with a few design quirks. 835sqm block.

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I think 26 Ponsonby Terrace is a mistake? QV reckons it has a $1,875,000 RV.

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CJ099
Re: " . . . whopper price drops in those Auckland exclusive/ overpriced areas according to the auction data here; Check out 26 Ponsonby Terrace, Ponsonby, Auckland City. RV $4,150,000 (July '17), and Sold for: $2,091,000".
According to Auckland City Council, July 2017 CV is $1,875,000 - don't know where you got your RV from but certainly not a "whopper price drop" as you claim.
In fact if sale price is correct, that is in fact $216,000 (or 11%) above and not below July 17 CV.
You might need to see A&E about that bullet wound in your foot. :)

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"According to Auckland City Council, July 2017 CV is $1,875,000 - don't know where you got your RV from?"

Out of his imagination, like most of his posts

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Yawn... Sad Yvil how many times do we have to tell you that the Rating Value: $4,150,000 (July '17) is listed on this site for in the auction results for 26 Ponsonby Terrace, Ponsonby. Showing a big drop in value from the latest sold price. Are you so incompetent that you can't even scroll though the auction results on this website? Here, I'll make it easy search for Ponsonby, it's the only successful auction sale they had for that area in the past two months. :)

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CJ099
You sensationalised "the whopper price drops in those Auckland exclusive/ overpriced areas" based on the premise that "26 Ponsonby Terrace, Ponsonby, Auckland City. RV $4,150,000 (July '17), and Sold for: $2,091,000"
Rather than acknowledging that your sensationalising claim was based on an incorrect premise, you deflect this by simply attacking Yvil!

Here try it: "Sorry guys - the data was wrong. There was not a whopper price drops in those Auckland exclusive/ overpriced areas based on my claims for Ponsonby Terrace."
That is more pertinent to the discussion.

P.S. With a bouyant market now, deadline tenders may now be - and probably are - a better form of marketing compared to auctions. In an auction the vendor stands to get only a "$1" more than the second highest bidder; in a bouyant market, deadline tenders mean FOMO on desirable properties result in a margin that is most likely considerably greater . . .
and deadline auctions are far cheaper for the vendor. Number of auctions as an indicator on its own says very, very little and it is naive to read too much into raw numbers like that.
Cheers

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From the residential auction results page on Interest.co. Halfway down page 2 of the following link.

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/residential-auction-results?region=…

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Looking at REINZ it is evident that property is selling substantially above CV in large areas of central Auckland.
It is also apparent that sales are higher than in January 2019 and that Dec 19 was 31% higher than in Dec 18.
Bear in mind what you are comparing to, not just the month you are in.
Dec-Jan 2018-19 was afflicted by OBB and AML, hence the year after was bound to be better.
There are a lot more townhouses selling under $750k, especially on periphery areas of Auckland.
2 bed townhouses in Papakura go for under $600k.
Stock is rising at about 12-15,000 pa for last 2 years at least.
Immigration however , is easing and interest rates are unlikely to fall further in next 4 months.
GDP is slipping too.
Given these circumstances, and the Corona virus effect on confidence, it is likely that the sales market in Auckland will continue much in same vein as last 3 years, or lower.
Prices for property over $1.2m seem likely to continue to sell above CV, often by a wide margin, due to the shortage of stock OTM in those brackets.
31% sales increase in one month will not be repeated next month, bit like a sale of used cars.
Lots sold in December that had been sitting OTM for months.
Which suggests high flyers with cash were in the market at the same time as people seeing chance to sell at high prices that market would not buy earlier in 2019.
Prices will continue to be pretty stable until end of March.
Then they will begin to fall, as stock is too high and market is OVER-SUPPLIED.

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Will be interesting to see what impact coronavirus has on the housing market.
I think the impact will be limited, unless there is a big sell off of property by Chinese, in order to repatriate their funds to China in the face of crisis there. That's probably unlikely, though.

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Immigration is easing? News to me.

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Comparing the 3m of Oct, Nov and Dec 2018 to 2019:

Townhouse sale below $725k, up 40%
Houses and townhouses under $725k, up 15%

Priced over $1.3m up 15%
Priced $725 - 900k: up 17.7%
Priced $900 - 1.3m, up 15.5%

What we do NOT know of course, is what % of stock sold, taking into account the increase in the period concerned.

Total sales in Auckland for the 3m concerned, rose 13.36%, compared to 2018.

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This is for CJ099 (and anyone else interested of course):

Apartment sales in Auckland City: Oct-Dec 2017: 587
Oct-Dec 2018: 513
Oct-Dec 2019: 439

2018-19 drop of 14.4%

As we keep being informed that Auckland is still building lots more apartments, this entails that the unsold stock MUST be rising.

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Thanks Mike and we do appreciate the extra property data you put forward. :)

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Beware of Auckland apartments! There are many pitfalls - from systemic water leak problems to dysfunctional body corporates.....

By far the better choice is a stand-alone house, with freehold fee simple title - and the closer to the CBD the better. Drive-on access is a bonus.

Hint: I’m picking the Ponsonby / Freemans Bay area to be a big winner over the medium term.

TTP

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Palmy had its day this cycle TTP, you not praising it no more? TBH anywhere in NZ will be a medium term winner me thinks and as you say freemans and ponsinby could be Big winners. More people will want to live in nz, enjoy the weekend.

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Hi Houseworks,

For the record, Palmerston North has had a stellar performance in recent times - exactly as I predicted.

I believe PN will continue to perform well.

Further, there is still plenty of life in the Wellington market - especially the city suburbs such as Brooklyn and Kelburn.

TTP

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Interesting response, are you takingthepiss? Or is something eating you up, something other than your mortgage payments. Enjoy the weekend!

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Ttp is one weird and nasty person.
He even hates on his property mates!!!!

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And now he's gone and edited his comment, no apology to HW either, just slinking off into the shadows.

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You ever edit comments :p ?? Lifes too short to be tracking someone else movements... unless you're google or a doctor, which one are you?

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In summary:
More houses up for sale
Higher clearance rate
More houses sold at auction
Much higher % selling price above CV (73%)

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Hi Yvil,

You'll have noted that there aren't too many DGM here today........

But neither will you be too surprised.

TTP

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I guess the DGMs are too busy getting on with their lives, rather than wasting a perfectly fine Saturday sitting at a computer being smug w***ers?

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DGM are sitting at home licking their wounds......

TTP

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With all the major stock indices up 20%+ in the last year I wouldn't count on it.

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