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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