All of the apartments at this week's Ray White City Apartments were passed in without a single sale being made under the hammer.
There was a good mix of nine apartments on offer that would have appealed to both investors and owner-occupiers and there was a reasonable crowd in attendance, but they remained cautious and tended to keep their hands in their pockets.
Five of the apartments did not attract a single bid from potential buyers although the auctioneer was busy making vendor bids throughout the proceedings, but in most cases that wasn't enough to encourage others to follow suit and make a bid of their own.
Even those apartments that did attract genuine bids were passed in when they failed to meet their vendors' reserves.
Significantly five of the nine apartments had been purchased since July this year, meaning their vendors had owned them for a maximum of four months before putting them back on the market but all were passed in when they failed to meet their reserves.
That suggests the days of the quick flick for quick profit may be drawing to a close.
See below for the full results of this week's Ray White City Apartments auction are below:
- 6D/62 Queen St, Portland Towers. A 36 square metre, one bedroom furnished apartment with balcony facing directly on to Queen St. Rented at $375 a week. When there were no bids on the property the auctioneer opened with a vendor bid of $200,000 plus GST (if any) and when there were still no bids from the floor he increased the vendor bid to $240,000 plus GST. But when there were still no bids from any potential buyers it was passed in. According to QV.co.nz the unit had been purchased for $428,750 in 2006. The agent was Dominic Worthington.
- 308/145 Symonds St. Madison House. A 64 square metre, two bedroom unit. Vacant. According to QV.co.nz the unit had been purchased in July this year for $398,000. The opening bid on the property was at this week's auction was $350,000 and there were multiple bidders but it was passed in with a highest bid of $480,000. The agent was Dusan Valenta.
- 4B/99 Anzac Ave, CBD. Focus on Anzac building. A 55 square metre, two bedroom unit. Vacant. According to QV.co.nz the unit had been purchased in September this year for $340,000. At this week's auction the highest bid from a potential buyers was $390,000, which the auctioneer then trumped with a vendor bid of $400,000 and when there were no further bids it was passed in. The agents were Ryan Bridgman and Mitch Agnew.
- 327/184 Symonds St. Citta building. A 51 square metre, two bedroom apartment with car park. Vacant. According to QV.co.nz the unit had been purchased in August for $450,000 but at this week's auction there were no bids for it and it was passed in. The agents were Ryan Bridgman and Mitch Agnew.
- 14H/15 Whitaker Place. Columbia on Whitaker building. Vacant. There were multiple bidders on the unit but it was passed in with a highest bid of $250,000. According to QV.co.nz it had been purchased for $208,000 in 2002.The agent was Sam Woods.
- 1F/2 Eden Cres. Argent Hall building. A 41 square metre, one bedroom unit with balcony. Vacant. When there were no bids from the floor the auctioneer opened the bidding with a vendor bid of $350,000 but when there were still no bids from potential buyers it was passed in. According to QV.co.nz the unit had been purchased for $92,800 in 2010. The agents were Judi and Michelle Yurak.
- 9G/11 Howe St, Freemans Bay. Meridian building. An 85 square metre, two bedroom, two bathroom penthouse apartment on two levels, with extensive views of the harbour and city. Vacant. According to QV.co.nz the apartment was purchased for $602,000 in August this year. At this week's auction there was an opening bid of $650,000 but when there were no further bids it was passed in. The agents were Judi and Michelle Yurak.
- 414/184 Symonds St. Citta building. A 65 square metre, two bedroom apartment with a car park. According to QV.co.nz the unit was purchased for $550,000 in August this year. When there were no bids from the floor for it at this week's auction the auctioneer opened with a vendor bid of $500,000 which he then increased to $550,000. But when there were still no bids from potential buyers it was passed in. The agents were Ryan Bridgman and Mitch Agnew.
- 1F/118 Gladstone Rd, Parnell. Gladstone Apartments. A 54 square metre, one bedroom apartment in a leaky building that requires significant remediation work. When there were no bids on the property the auctioneer made a vendor bid of $350,000, but when there no bids from potential buyers it was passed in.
37 Comments
At one stage Dublin apartment prices fell 62% from peak
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-2015-global-housing-market-crash-prope…
I don't think they were dealing with
leaky buildings
body corporates not fully funded
major fire hazards
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=115…
We live in interesting times ;-)
Most likely, given this evidence.
According to the data, some workers will need to save for more than 100 years to buy the average first-time home in the UK (with a mortgage, of course). Among those who would have to save for over a lifetime to afford a home are waiters, cleaners, florists, cooks, fitness instructors and carers. Here’s the data in full: Read More
Just in case you wondered who is bidding up the deal, in plain English.
Maybe the below item should have been translated for all to see and be forewarned.
Printed and posted in Swahili, perhaps?.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/home-property/10246684/New-limits-on-…
I am intrigued by some of the 'bidding' and the response by the owners to the bids on the flats that have clearly been bought as 'flips' ie the 5 which has been purchased in the last 6 months. The most glaring is:
308/145 Symonds St. Madison House. According to QV.co.nz the unit had been purchased in July this year for $398,000. The opening bid on the property was at this week's auction was $350,000 and there were multiple bidders but it was passed in with a highest bid of $480,000.
Are we to believe that the vendor seriously turned down a profit (before costs) of $82,000 for holding that property for just 4 months? Given the sudden uncertainty in the market? I would be wondering how genuine some of those bids were.....
In 2 of the other obvious flips there were supposidly before costs profits of $48,000 and $50,000 turned down as well.
Maybe there was a bit of work done which the vendor(s) were factoring in - but then again.....
Doesn't it normally take regular Joe investor around 6 months to give up on the idea that prices will recover soon at which point the market is illiquid. A friend of a friend in Ireland sold 53 apartments on the first hints of slowdown, completely dodged the crash and now owns half the town. Greed definitely isn't good in this scenario.
Vendors bids? If they were , were they disclosed to the audience? I wonder how many buyers have bought in Auckland not knowing that the phone bidders were the vendor pumping up the sale price. That people were planted in the room to make certain bids. That you were the only real bidder in the room and the auction was completely staged to get past the vendors reserve.
that is now illegal, in saying that bet it still happens.
http://www.reaa.govt.nz/ForLicensees/YourObligations/Vendor-bids-at-auc…
Will vendor bids still be allowed?
Yes, but only in restricted circumstances. They may only be made if all three of the following conditions are met:
##The property at auction has a reserve price
##The reserve price has not been reached, and
##The bid is clearly identified by the auctioneer as a vendor bid
What won't be allowed?
Dummy or shill bids
These are bids that are made by people who appear to be genuine bidders but are in fact being made on behalf of the vendor to persuade genuine bidders to raise their bid.
Dummy or shill bids were not previously allowed and remain illegal. People making dummy or shill bids never intend to purchase the property at auction
What seem to be almost record prices and nearly everything sold at the Harcourts Gold auctions in Christchurch today.
Low interest rates seem to be given the market down here a second wind. Most buyers appeared to be locals. 3 sales in the $1.7 - 3m range and another 2 over $1m.
That is why the law change came in from 1 October. Sold within 2 years - yes, was house your family residence - no = gain taxable.
The previous rules were a nightmare for IRD to enforce. These new one are a lot easier.
I would go further and remove all exemptions and tax gains on all property sold within 5 years (yes, including the family home) at a flat concessionary rate (say 15% to allow for improvements to the property which could not be claimed as a deduction against the sale price). Simple and effective (but probably political suicide:)
I do trust that who ever wrote this artucle is aware that a vendor bid is not a bid and in many countries would deemed as illegal , it very much looks like speculators were looking for a fast buck , well if 50k was not enough, one must hope they get it stuck where it really hurts .
There is a legal process whereby a vendor makes a bid in NZ. The auctioneer announces to all bidders that they are making a bid on behalf of the vendor. There is full disclosure and in practice it prevents the house been passed in when there are bona fide bidders but they are all keeping their hands down. It also finds the highest bid for the seller if there is one bidder willing to pay more but no one is competing. This may help to also find the reserve price.
See http://www.reaa.govt.nz/ForLicensees/YourObligations/Vendor-bids-at-auc…
I am surprised so many accept this activity, I will not participate in an auction unless I was able to receive a list of all bids made, those bidders were identified and able to be confirmed as legitimate buyers. That there is a clear path of redress if it is found to have occurred and failure to comply brings heavy penalties on the auctioneer. Failing that, the risk that one or more is only there to pump the price in favour of the vendor over a genuine bid is overwhelming. To defenders of the vendor bid, all the reasons put forth so far are only attempts to cover your embarrassment in having have mispriced the property, failed to market it sufficiently well or wish to present a better statistics.
Over my 30 years of giving professional advice to people and often being asked how buyers should approach an auction I always said sit down the back and watch who is bidding and do not go in to early with your first bid. Funny that. "Sit down the back." In other words watch the agents and anyone else doing the bidding. It would be impossible to calculate the number of buyers world wide who have been completely sewn up by agents staging an auction to flush out innocent buyers who did not even realise for example "the buyer on the phone did not exist and it was the agent just pulling numbers out the air.' What a disgusting line of business to be working in. One cannot call them professionals. Like car salesmen they are right down the bottom of the list of those we trust most.
If you are at an auction as a genuine (non professional investor) bidder you may be pretty anxious,as you prepare to commit your life savings, and the adrenalin may make hard to keep your cool and figure out what is a bid and what is not.You should not have to. I have been to an occasional auction out of interest only, and I strongly suspect that I can identify shill bidders because I'm dispassionate, but if I was wound up my judgement would be affected.
It is all very well to say shill bidders are illegal, but how do you prove it, especially if it looks like a phone doing the bidding??
While it is an axiom that everything reverts to the mean don't worry about AKL housing.
No sub prime / Dublin fiascos here. We are gifted, skilled financiers who don't go chasing rainbows, 1987, pine forests, emu raising, finance companies, dairy farming, plaster housing withstanding.
Add in the skill and honesty of wide boy Johnny and we are home and hosed.
Look for housing to pop up another 20% next year
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