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Auction results: one third of apartments sold at this week's auctions, two thirds passed in

Property
Auction results: one third of apartments sold at this week's auctions, two thirds passed in

The Auckland apartment market has ended the year on a relatively quiet note at the last major apartment auctions of 2016.

At City Sales' auction four apartments were offered and two were sold, with the other two passed in, and at Barfoot & Thompson's auction five apartments went under the hammer but all were passed in and three of them didn't receive any bids.

At Ray White City Apartments' auction later in the day, three apartments were offered and two sold under the hammer, which brought a smile from auctioneer Ted Ingram who said the first apartment he auctioned this year was sold under the hammer and so was the last, which meant he started and finished what had been a busy year, on a high note.

That gave an overall clearance rate of 33% at this week's apartment auctions, broadly in line with what is being achieved at the general residential auctions in Auckland lately.

People of Chinese ethnicity were notable by their absence at this week's apartment auctions, with very few in attendance. This is a major turnaround from a few months ago when they would have been a substantial majority at most of the auctions.

It was also significant that most of the apartments offered this week were the larger apartments that often appeal to owner-occupiers, rather than the smaller apartments that tend to be the preserve of investors.

However buyers remain cautious overall, and one potential buyer at this week's auctions noted how bidding patterns had changed recently.

A few months ago the bidding would rapidly pass the reserve resulting in a quick sale, but over the last few months it had become the norm for the bidding to stall below the reserve, forcing the auctioneer to pause the proceedings and negotiate with the vendor to reduce their reserve to achieve a sale, he said.

The full results of the three apartment auctions we covered this week, with the prices achieved on individual properties, are available on our Auctions/Sales Results page.

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34 Comments

If the headline says "Chinese buyers notable by their absence at this week's apartment auctions"

It does mean that heart to heart everyone know who are one of the major reason of current housing crisis.

Need say more !

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It is like a universal truth known to all but national government - sticking to their policy of denial, lie and manipulation

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Isn't that racist?

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If any reader talks or mention will be termed as racist but this is the hard reality. So expert1 you need not say anything as everything is know to one and all. Politicians too will realize it next year - election year.

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Politicians too have realized it but yes will accept it next year-election year

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Nothing's going to change

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This is what people though in UK and USA but....................

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In today's time Social media is a powerful too and can make or break government as hard to manipulate information. Any politician who ignores it face the tune.

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However hard politicians try to manipulate media but in today's time hard to suppress the information and people feeling.

Like it or not world is changing and so will NZ.

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Maybe, but social media can also be a massive echo chamber where the views expressed can be completely disconnected from the views of the general population.

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Hop in the GTR & crash it

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Racist, xenophobic observations are coming out from under the blanket of complete silence expected by the 'free media'....

Watch your Language.

They are called Buyers....not Chinese....Investments, not Houses, App-artment, is some of it is true, check your computer......Denial, is miss-informed, lie, is a National past time and Manipulation, is sexist.

We are all in this together. HetroHomoManFemipulation...if you please.

I think I am getting the gist of the New Regime.

And if you cannot believe your eyes, you are not up with the play, times change.

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Yes times change
Welcome to a new flag........CHINANZ

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Oh...and it is .....FRIDAY.

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as long as there are kiwi mum and dad investors she'll be alright! Tauranga's market is still booming and I haven't many Chinese over here.. ever.

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Chinese want BEST schools

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Tauranga is like Florida in the US, where a lot of the baby boomers go to retire. It is warm and it is well out of Auckland and the rat race. But it is a bubble in itself, a bit like Queenstown.

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Here an interesting relevant article hot of the press from the BBC that helps to clarify why the Chinese Buyers are missing - they can't get credit, why can't they get credit I hear you ask?
Well China is in very significant debt to the tune of " China's outstanding debt stands at 250% of GDP - two and a half times the size of its annual economic output - a level that is worrying some".

Research notes from various international banks suggest 2017 could be the year China's debt-fuelled boom turns to bust.

BBC Article: China's spiralling property prices
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38290708

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Interesting article. Bloomberg have run similar articles in the past - some with similar ominous tones, others less so. Those that are less ominous point out that many home buyers do not have large mortgages and pay in cash ( is this borrowed cash - who knows - that is the problem with a shadow banking system) and that much of the debt is owed by government owned company's - so there is a strong element of control over what goes on , i.e. not the normal Western bad debt situation. I think while the Chinese government will be able to control this zombie corporate debt to a degree - I think eventually even the Chinese government will loose the ability to control that debt, if it gets to large. When that happens - the brown stuff will hit the fan.

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WEll I hope GFC2 would hurry up
I'm not investing in a nearing 20,000 DOW

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I am a bit worried for my colleague. She sees prices starting to come down as a good time to "invest" in the regions while she can just afford to pay her Auckland rent. Do you think it's a good plan?

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I'd wait until it bottoms out. Could be a few months yet as there will be investors that will be keen to dump their properties when the recognize that there isn't any capital gains to be made for quite a while. I'd give it at least six months before looking to buy property in Auckland anyway.

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Rod Duke thought Pumpkin Patch was a good buy too, at $1.65, when the prices had come down......
What property doesn't sell now ( read above!) will meet the additional supply that tip-toes onto the market next Autumn...and if that logjam doesn't clear by Easter.....remember what happened in Ireland at Easter (was it?) 2008.....

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In the sharemarket, the saying goes: "Don't try to catch a falling knife". Probably a good idea for her to wait a bit, as the others have said, if only to see how the US interest rate rise ripples through the system...

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Those of an ethnicity-that-can't-be-named are canny buyers, very aware of the best places to park their $$$. And of course the unusual & unbalanced tax system is this country has strongly favoured putting their money into property, and reaping the tax benefits.

I wonder whether they realise that the winds are changing, eg through The Opportunities Party's tax policy, & the inevitability of change in the tax regime - and therefore bailing early.

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Canny? Or hysterical bubble seekers with all the directional independence of schooling fish?

Let history be the judge.

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Well you can't ignore the market switch and the low auction results. Actions speak louder than words.

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Lets call a spade a spade , Aprtment sales in Auckland have for years been an all Asian affair , its just that the buyers have dried up

Its due to :-
Changed immigration rules by NZ which is slowing the rate down from next year
A requirement the buyers have to have NZ IRD numbers ( they dont like this one bit )
Bigger deposits required
Tightening if exchange controls in China
And the fact that Indian student migration agents were caught cheating means there are fewer applicants

Lastly , the prices of these apartment properties have spiraled out of control , and even wealthy Chinese can see this for what it is , a bubble waiting to pop

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But John Key said that Chinese/foreign buyers aren't a problem....he wouldn't lie.

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IRD numbers = paying TAX
That they hate
They do like using the grand NZ health and education systems

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I see Barfoot is sponsoring a "Year of the Rooster" celebration. Come on people! Its time to introduce a foreign buyers tax, as all the other OECD countries have done.

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Vancouver tax on non citizen buyers and local investors.

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BC Canada just announced a $150K No Interest loan for 1st home buyers!
Of course this is to keep the wealthy developer contributors to politicians happy keeping the boom rolling NOT the hapless young couple who cannot afford anything but a dog house in Vancouver today

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Yes and they have far more reasonable mortgage rates, it's only us smucks that are having to extremely high mortgage rates in the 4%+ to 5%+ in the Western world and mostly to Ozzy banks.

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