The liveliest bidding was for a leasehold apartment in a leaky building which had a declared reserve of just $50,000

Just over half of the apartments offered at this week's main Auckland apartment auctions were sold under the hammer, which was an improvement on what has been seen at other auctions recently.

At Barfoot & Thompson's Thursday morning auction four apartments were offered and two sold under the hammer, the other two being passed in for sale by negotiation.

One of those that was passed in was an apartment in the newly completed Sugar Tree development on Union St, which attracted no bids, the other was a studio on Wakefield St which received an opening bid of $140,000 from the floor, which the auctioneer refused to accept. When there were no further bids it was passed in.

Both of the apartments that sold under the hammer attracted multiple bids.

At Ray White City Apartments' auction 11 properties were offered, which is the largest offering they have had for some time and six were sold under the hammer, although auctioneer Ted Ingram and the Ray White team had their work cut out for them on some properties that needed some pretty tough negotiating to get them across the line.

However the fact that just over half sold under the hammer suggests vendors may be starting to realise that the market has softened and are becoming a bit more realistic with their price expectations.

Ironically the liveliest bidding was for a leasehold unit in The Landings building located near the historic former Central Railway Station building.

The Landings building has faced substantial remediation issues and the 38 square metre, one bedroom apartment was offered with a declared reserve of $50,000, but there were several keen bidders and it sold under the hammer for $91,000.

The full results from both auctions are available on our Auctions/Sales Results page.

You can receive all of our property articles automatically by subscribing to our free email Property Newsletter. This will deliver all of our property-related articles, including auction results and interest rate updates, directly to your in-box 3-5 times a week. We don't share your details with third parties and you can unsubscribe at any time. To subscribe just click on this link, scroll down to "Property email newsletter"and enter your email address.