Auction activity continues to pick up slowly, although the low number of homes being auctioned online makes it difficult to draw too many conclusions about the state of the market post-lockdown.
On April 12 Auckland's largest real estate agency Barfoot & Thompson held an online auction of five properties, two that would be likely to appeal more to owner-occupiers and three that could appeal to investors.
Results were very mixed, with two properties attracting multiple bids and selling under the hammer, two properties that had just a single bidder and were passed in, and one that didn't get any bids.
The first property on offer was a modern, brick and tile, four bedroom/two bathroom house with a double garage on a 722 square metre section at Somerville in Auckland's eastern suburbs. It had a Rating Valuation of $1.275 million.
Bidding opened at $1.16 million with several bidders initially joining the fray. The bidding stalled at $1.291 million at which point the auction was paused while the agents held discussions with the vendor and potential buyers. Thereafter bidding proceeded again, but very slowly and extracting higher bids was like pulling teeth.
All up the property received 20 bids. But the auction was paused four times for behind the scenes discussions and it took more than 35 minutes before it finally sold under the hammer for $1.382 million.
The second property on offer was a standard four bedroom weatherboard house with a separate single garage on a 680 square metre section at Manurewa in South Auckland.
The marketing material for the property suggested prospective buyers consider "creative ideas for renovation or subdivision."
It had a Rating Valuation of $590,000 and there were several bidders competing for it, but as with the first property the bidding was extremely slow and it took nearly half an hour for it to sell under the hammer for $610,000.
The third offering was a new four bedroom/three bathroom house on two levels with a single garage on a 310 square metre section at Takanini in South Auckland. It had a Rating Valuation of $800,000, but there was only one bidder for the property and it was passed in when he/she wouldn't budge at $720,500.
The fourth offering was two bedroom house with a separate single garage on a 733 square metre section that backed on to the railway tracks in Manurewa. It was marketed as an "urgent sale" with potential to build apartments or terrace housing or be converted to commercial use. It had a Rating Valuation of $540,000 and was passed in after receiving a single bid of $600,000.
The final offering was a two bedroom house on two levels with a carport in Auckland's inner west suburb of Waterview. It had a Rating Valuation of $710,000 but was passed in after failing to receive any bids.
So it was a very mixed result and the only conclusions that could be taken from it were that buyers were active but for the most part remained cautious and there was no evidence of a collapse in prices.
However the market should begin to pick up considerably next week with agencies able to resume conducting open homes and buyers able to attend live auctions in person, which should start to provide a better indication of where the market might be headed.
You can see details of the properties offered at Barfoot & Thompson's latest auctions on our Residential Auction Results page.
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