Auction activity has begun to drop away a bit as we head towards the Christmas break, but the sales rate improved at the latest auctions and more properties fetched prices equal to or above their rating valuation.
Interest.co.nz monitored the auctions of 431 residential properties around the country over the week of 7-13 December, down from about 500 in each of the previous three weeks.
However, that was still quite busy considering it is so close to Christmas. Next week's Orders of Sale suggest it will be busy too.
While fewer properties were on offer at the latest auctions, more of them were selling, with 175 selling under the hammer, giving an overall sales rate of 41%, the highest it has been in the last three months.
Prices appeared a bit firmer too, with 46% of sales achieving or surpassing their rating valuation, also the highest it has been in the last three months.
Perhaps the looming Christmas/new year break, when the market all but shuts down for several weeks, pushed more vendors and buyers to commit to a sale.
Details of the individual properties offered at all of the auctions monitored by interest.co.nz, including the selling prices of those that sold, are available on our Residential Auction Results page.
The comment stream on this story is now closed.
49 Comments
Up 10% in 2025 (like 2024 was going to, but it kinda got postponed)
Just like every year since 2021….
Wild assertions with nothing to back it up.
i think you meant -10%, but will show mercy to an unarmed participant / spruiker.
"Wild assertions with nothing to back it up."
This is very common.
Sometimes even the reasoning can be incorrect and flawed. Remember these lines of reasoning?
1) Tony Alexander - 19 reasons why there's no crash - December 2021
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_…
2) Catherine Masters - July 2022
Why the New Zealand housing market is nowhere near crash point
https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/why-the-new-zealand-housing-market-is-no…
3) Ashley Church - April 2022
Four reasons the housing market won't crash
https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/ashley-church-four-reasons-the-housing-m…
4) Kelvin Davidson - Dec 2021
“But will prices actually fall? I’m not convinced because in the past a serious housing downturn has come with a recession, but no one is suggesting that and unemployment is low at 3.4 per cent.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/real-estate/127305870/what-lie…
5) Nov 2021 - Here's why it might be fruitless to pin your hopes on a house price crash
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300449314/heres-why-it-might-be-fruitl…
I know the real reason the market is picking up and it is picking up because I am noticing a lot more "SOLD" stickers on the street for sale signs to the immediate south of Epsom and in Epsom itself as well as Mt Eden.
And I am more acutely aware of the reason than probably most other posters on this site because I am coming up 77 years-old in January..
Anybody guessed yet?
I belong to that demographic called the baby-boomers that more than any one else has reaped the vituperation on this site of the younger generations for keeping house-prices beyond reach.
Well, those long-suffering younger FHBs will be glad to know that slowly but increasingly the baby-boomers are beginning to 'fall off the perch" so to speak. I have already lost several friends, acquaintances, and friends of acquaintances and several more have recently acquired some devastating illnesses. Some have sold their houses and gone into retirement villages or even rest homes. I would say that the trend started coincidently around the time of Covid although I wouldn't call it a case of post hoc ergo propter hoc...none of them died of Covid. But the pace has definitely picked up this year. I estimate that over half those cases have involved the subsequent selling of a home. It's inevitable that from now on more and more houses owned by baby-boomers will be coming onto the market.
However, I do also recognize that my disappearing demographic has been at least partly filled by immigrants and a lot of the more educated ones can afford to buy houses. So, once this is realized by the FHBs then I expect that these columns will start blaming immigrants for keeping house-prices high.
I'm sorry to hear about your friends. Perhaps your statement "the trend started coincidently around the time of Covid" should be edited to say " the trend started coincidently around the time of Covid jabs".....
The number of houses for sale on trade me has dropped by about 80 in the last few weeks and seeing a big bump in the number as "sold" on homes. Plenty of activity. (Whangarei area)
define you definition of BIG
is it like when you catch a fish
Exactly like fishing......"It was THIS big".
FYI if you must have a definition, on my small mapped area of Whangarei central on Homes there are 58 listed as sold so far this month. Many months preceding it was lucky to get to 40 for the month, so considering it looks like nearly 50% more than average, I would call that a bump. What would you call it?
Property spruiking of course. All those SOLD signs out about the place must be fake.
"on my small mapped area of Whangarei central on Homes there are 58 listed as sold so far this month"
Is that a total of 58 sales over the last 12 months in that area?
For the month of December so far.
FYI,
1) REINZ reported 138 sales in the Whangarei district for October 2024. (i.e one month)
2) Realestate.co.nz reported 11 sales in Whangarei Central for the last 12 months
https://www.realestate.co.nz/insights/northland/whangarei/whangarei-cen…
You don't get it. I have selected an area in Whangarei and watch the sales is this "user" selected area which is not the greater district, just the area I am interested in. You can do this on the homes website.
Another one of your echo world fantasies exposed...
Now you back that bus up - beep-beep-beep
If by "small mapped area of Whangarei central" you mean the whole of Whangarei then yes that's roughly what I'm seeing on homes.
Spruikers gonna spruik.
Congratulations, you've discovered Christmas, where stock falls before it rebounds in February.
Isn't the HPI due out this week ? Its going to be a busy February, everything is selling down here, even a big block of land just sold in our street. The expectations are for a Feb OCR cut and an improving market for 2025. Total stock for sale is dropping its already back to normal levels.
What part of NZ are you located?
Tauranga. I suspect the market is picking up all over.
When the market is in an "itsy bitsy gully".....stating the obvious - every direction must be up?? Or is it the bump before the killer bluff?
"The sellers are really motivated"......
(1991) The Big Short (2015) - FrontPoint Partners' investigation in Florida & first trade [HD 1080p] - YouTube
Still love that film.
It's inspired a whole generation to think they can crack the code of how and when the economy will shit the bed.
I suspect you don't know anything.
It appears to be though some don't want to admit it.
I suspect the market is picking up all over.
I'd say it's fragmented, depending on the population growth or decrease of the area, and the state of it's local economy.
The timing in our main centres usually varies from everywhere else.
North shore houses 50% of total sales above RV for a couple of weeks now, we might see a 10-20% increase next year after a big OCR cut
Love the humour there, JM.
This call, like your many others, will be dripping with embarrassment egg, come later on 2025.
The current mantra out there is: "try to hold the fix till 2026"
This housing market requires 3.5% mortgage rates ...... just to stay steady and tread water.
once the new CVs are out you will see more over CV sales, as the CVs will be lowered, except CHCH and Riverhead....
I was at a bunch of open homes at the supposedly hot North Shore yesterday. Most houses only had 1 or 2 parties through. Its dead.
May your wishful thinking continue.
Oh so you are looking at buying a house all of a sudden ?
Oh how suprising for you to assume I've never bought a house before.
Like anybody with half an ounce of intelligence in property, its important to test the temperature of the water every so often.
The water is still freezing and the uninformed are still sitting in the bath screaming that it will heat up any time now as they head towards hyperthermia and inevitable financial death.
Maybe its time to get out before you get sick Zwifter?
You kind of struck me as a bit of a tire kicker.
You kind of struck me as somebody who is desperately overleveraged.
Assumptions are free, just like dreams.
So instead of going to the beach, a winery a nice bush walk etc. you spend your free time going to open homes to merely “test the temperature of the water” lol. And how many posts have you made on this topic here I sense a lot of frustration.
Some of us choose to stay well informed.
Some of us spout crap on here without any basis.
Different strokes for different folks.
So you're "testing the waters".
And theres no super good deals you've found from all these houses with no one viewing them.
Interdesting
Yeah, vendors are still coming back down to earth, buyers are not interested.
Not too long. The new CVs in February should ground both vendors and buyers.
Already got the new RVs and surprisingly higher than I thought. Only 2 down but by less than 4%
Yeah and what CV are those properties? $2, $3m?
Because the fact of the matter is the bulk of the properties purchased are in the 600k - 1.2m range and those properties are likely to have relatively considerable adjustments (10 - 25%).
Many properties that are distressed or needing significant work have a good discount.
Something turnkey, not so much.
Something significant needs to change to increase sellers motivations to a decent degree, and there's already changes that remove that motivation.
It's as funny as the posters who will make posts equivalent to "property investors are scum/stupid, check out this comment from one of the various property investors chats I choose to frequent".
There is a dumb investor for every smart one. The bifurcation is very clear in the comment section here.
In saying so being morally broke is not a prerequisite to being in either category.
There's morally broke people everywhere you want to look.
Thats funny what area? We just had another sold on our street for well above CV.
Hillcrest, Birkdale, Glenfield, Sunnynook. First home buyer territory in the North Shore where the bulk of houses tend to sell.
Congratulations on your neighbours sale above CV? What suburb?
Mairangi Bay.
Expensive area. My Father used to live there, had the cheapest house in the most expensive area, it was an easy sell.
Yeah that is not a typical average area of Auckland and won't be affected by interest rates/economic conditions as much so it doesn't suprise me.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.