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There was a reasonable selection and some strong bidding at the latest Auckland apartment auctions

Property
There was a reasonable selection and some strong bidding at the latest Auckland apartment auctions

There was a hint of spring in the air at the main Auckland apartment auctions this week, with a good selection on offer and a good level of interest from buyers.

City Sales kicked off the week with two apartments on offer at their Wednesday auction, a vacant, one bedroom, leasehold unit in the Sebel building down at Viaduct, and a one bedroom unit in the Tetra building on Wakefield Street.

Both attracted a good level of interest with multiple bids on both properties but only the Sebel unit sold under the hammer while the Tetra unit was passed in for sale by negotiation.

There were also two units on offer at Barfoot & Thompson's apartment auction on Thursday morning, a one bedroom unit in The Statesman building near the High Court which attracted competitive bidding and was sold under the hammer, and a dual key apartment (two adjoining, self contained studios on a single title) in the Queens Residence building on Airedale Street that was passed in.

A good crowd turned out for the seven apartments that were on offer at Ray White City Apartments' weekly auction, with multiple bidders for five of them and four selling under the hammer.

The cheapest sale of the week was a leasehold, two bedroom unit with a car park in The Docks building on Quay Street that sold at Ray White for $178,000, and the most expensive was the Statesman unit sold at Barfoot's auction for $533,000.

Details of the prices achieved on the individual properties that sold are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

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40 Comments

6 out of 11 sold. 54.5%

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I think the words "Under the Hammer" need considering. A property I was watching did not sell at action but another only $10K offered during negotiation and a week later it was sold. Number of sales stated are hence a minimum, plenty more selling by negotiation afterwards. The Auckland market is simply not quiting.

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And I can counter that with an example of one family that bid at auction, bidding stopped well under reserve, vendor didn't want to negotiate on the night because bidding was too far from reserve. Property was listed online the next day with a price of $125k above the highest bid. They got a call a week later, the vendors agent asking if they were still interested. Long story short, picked it up for what they had bid on the night, about $230K under RV. And not a bad property at all from all accounts. So sure, it went to auction and sold eventually.. but only after the desperate vendor dropped their price to meet the non-existent market.

Sure sounds like a buyers market from that one anecdote since we are playing the anecdote game.

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The Auckland market is simply not quiting.

Not quitting and not quite-ing are two very different things. I think we're still in wait-and-see mode about which of these it might be.

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Hi RickStrauss,

You write weasel words.

When has the Auckland property market not been in a "wait-and-see mode"?

TTP

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I think most people are well aware of the difference between 10%+ growth per annum and two years of flatness without clear indication of where things might head next. Hardly what most would call "not quitting". No weasel words in there at all.

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Yes - interesting that auction clearance rates are creeping above 50% more often than 6 months ago.

TTP

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I've been keeping an eye on them out of interest. So far there's been nothing much to see that gives us any indication either way. I'm yet to see an auction of large numbers that has a high percentage sold, that I can recall.

We see high percentages on small numbers (e.g. 6 units sold), which is why percentages and numbers need to be looked at together and not in isolation. Getting excited when 3 of 4 sell (75% wow!) is premature even if it happens a few weeks in a row.

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House prices to keep tumbling down to reach 2002 levels.

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You very much sound like a man that wished he had bought in 2002 ?? Why say 2002 why not 1993 or 1957 ? its equally as silly.....

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Double-GZ,

Are you being sarcastic? - it is always difficult to tell in any internet forum and given that you have previously been very positive on the expectation of future property prices, in that they would continue upward.

However, if you're indeed being serious, that is a significant change in your expectations of future property prices. Can you share with us your thought process behind that conclusion and for your change of opinion to property price bear from property price bull? Your comment above would mean a price drop in excess of 60% in Auckland.

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Stage 3 - Bargaining. By sarcastically 'embracing' the inevitable the thought is that 'If I do, then let it not happen' = Bargaining?

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Dp.

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Be very, very interesting to know where these sales are coming from, I am sort of thinking, not your average kiwi.

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FBs jumping in. .

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since my mother now wants to sell her NZ house, and I don't want to buy an NZ house of my own, maybe I'll become a property spruiker. HEALTHY ROBUST MARKET CAN NEVER FALL ETFS ARE TOOLS OF THE DEVIL ... am I doing it right? tips appreciated.

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Never buy from family.

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Never buy in NZ

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Good start but careful the true property spruiker's may not like the competition.

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38a Godden Cresent in Mission bay (very nice house) sold recently for about 300K below CV. Perhaps that's the new norm if you actually want to sell your Auckland house in this market.

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Sold for $850,000 in 2013 so 59% increase in five years. Would it have been 95% up at the peak? Check Q.V. for Eastern Suburbs, it’s 6% up since 2016 when Auckland overall is flat. I think you are clutching at straws from the other side of the World.

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Yes, that house got a good price. It made the owner about two grand a week. It followed the ZS rule pretty exactly as back in 2006 it sold for 655k and houses in Auckland have doubled since then so 1355k is pretty much exactly right. Unless there were some major renovations or additions, and there doesn't look to be any, there was no reason for it to sell for more than this.

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That's some good non-taxable income while the working plebs fund the roads, social welfare, medical system etc. Nice work.

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That assumes a lot Rick. It was likely a family home. It doesn’t look like a rental. They were likely working plebs paying taxes like everyone else and they likely used the proceeds to buy another house.

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Eh...no, it's not. The fact a tax working group is to exclude the family home from a potential future tax, does not mean that the unearned income from this particular sale or any other sale is not tax-free income. It still is.

It's a big chunk of non-taxed unearned income, while working plebs continue to fund the services in NZ.

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I don’t get your point. Working people paying taxes sell their home and buy another one. What are you proposing, we tax their gain so they have less to spend? You seem blinded by envy. I’m half hoping the COL propose some radical envy taxes because it will be the end of them, if They don’t self implode before 2020.

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Is tax on working folks' income driven by property investors' envy?

Of course not. And sensible thinking about reversion to a historical mix of different taxes to drive different outcomes (e.g. getting land into the hands of more Kiwis) it not, either.

Thinks such as a CGT or (better) a land value tax would enable income taxes to be dropped while also driving better housing and business investment outcomes. As Milton Friedman noted re land tax, "All taxes are bad but land tax is the least bad".

This "you only want CGT or land tax because you're driven by envy!" seems to be becoming the new "you only want lower immigration volume because you're racist!"

Absurd...and driven by what motivation?

In a similarly robust vein, West Auckland man says police won't let him drive his replica police car because they're jealous that his car is better than theirs.

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I thought we were talking about owner occupiers. I never mentioned investors.

The TWG apparently are going soft on CGT and I doubt they will even look at a land tax, and it certainly wouldn’t apply to owner occupied homes if there was one. I’m not sure what’s left that will make any difference so it’s all of a moot point except the continued attack on landlords. Despite those attacks I’ve been looking at how to invest in a property and minimise likely taxes. I’m sure I’ll be able to navigate the socialist sink holes.

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We were, but then veered off into a philosophical discussion of whether X or Y tax (GST, CGT, land, income) are driven by envy or other needs, and whether resort to cries of "Envy!" is the new "Racist!"

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I agree with your estimate Ex Expat. It would have been up 95% at the peak, which was approximately July 2017. Logically that means the value (of 38a Godden Cresent) has declined by about 300K in a little over a year. Of course it's pure coincidence that the peak of the high end Auckland market coincides with the implementation of capital controls in China.

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I watch these things pretty closely and I don't think it would ever have fetched 300k more than it sold for recently. There must be better examples than this that highlight the "decline".

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So how are you explaining the sale of 14a Godfrey Place sold on 31/8 at auction for $1.8 million or 110% of the 2017 CV? IIRC you have lived in the area but are currently in London. Do you really think inner city beach suburbs are going to tank or could it be wishful thinking? The recent sales data suggests the latter.

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That was a really good price although the property ticks a lot of boxes, being 600m freehold with its own driveway, nice design and materials, well presented, staged, new roof, kitchen, wiring, painting and insulation. If a property was going to get a premium price this would be it.

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bang on the homes.co.nz median estimate in both cases.

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What is bang on? You mean that homes.co.nz have recorded a sale and adjusted the estimated price to the actual sales price?

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I fell for that at first when I was comparing Homes.co.nz and TradeMe's Property Insights. The latest selling price gets registered quite quickly these days.

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Some are very quick, others are still to be confirmed. Interesting that the estimate range is quite narrow post a sale but far wider in houses last sold some time back. There must be an age of sale algorithm.

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Check out this recent sale:

https://www.bayleys.co.nz/1670947

RV = 1060k Sold for 1311k
Last sold for 850k in 2013
That's more than $2200 a week!

These places are good investments as they are classic homes that have stood the test of time. The house we discussed above is not a classic and I have noticed cedar weatherboards and an iron roof don't get the premium prices like classic villas do (and never have - ZS rule)

I get the feeling we are going to see a bit of uplift in prices and sales numbers as we approach summer. I have noticed fewer asking prices and a few more auctions being brought forward.

It's a good time to think about selling if you are inclined to do so however market it properly. Use the ZS system to determine the right price (be realistic!). Use an agent, stage it and go to auction.

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Your preaching to people wearing Grade 5 earmuffs on this site.

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