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A full house and plenty of bidding at Ray White's mega apartment auction that was probably the biggest one interest.co.nz has attended

Property
A full house and plenty of bidding at Ray White's mega apartment auction that was probably the biggest one interest.co.nz has attended

Ray White City Apartments' latest auction was probably the biggest Auckland apartment auction interest.co.nz has attended since we began compiling auction results almost five years ago.

With 20 apartments on offer, the mega auction was a bold move given the lacklustre state of the Auckland property market, so there was an air of nervous anticipation among the crowd that packed out Ray White's CBD office in Lorne St on Thursday (June 20).

That nervousness was heightened by the nature of the first two apartments at the top of the Order of Sale.

Both were near identical studio apartments in the Harbour City building on Gore Street, which is facing what auctioneer Ted Ingram referred to as "significant remediation issues."

Buying properties with remediation issues, especially ones that are on the scale of those facing the Harbour City building, is a game for experienced investors only, and then only for those that can afford to take a loss if things don't work as they had anticipated.

But there were several potential buyers prepared to take a punt and bidding for both units was competitive, with both selling under the hammer, one for $162,000 and the other for $165,000.

According to QV.co.nz the unit that sold for $162,000 had a Rating Valuation (RV) of $215,000 and had been purchased in 2012 for $155,000, while the one that sold for $165,000 had an RV of $210,000 but did not have a sales history available.

The remaining 18 apartments were a real mix, ranging from spacious, upmarket apartments in character buildings to student shoe boxes and leasehold units and all but four of them attracted multiple bids. By the end of the auction 10 of the 20 properties offered had sold under the hammer, giving a sales rate of 50%.

With most of the properties that were passed in attracting multiple bids, and the fact that they would have been opened up to conditional offers after the auction, it's likely that a few more sales would have been concluded in post auction negotiations.

A notable feature at the auction was the relative lack of Asian faces given the size of the crowd. Auckland has a sizeable Asian population and you would expect them to have a reasonable presence at most auctions. If this same auction had been held three years ago at the height of the Chinese buying frenzy, Asian buyers would likely have dominated the bidding. But their numbers have dwindled since the Chinese Government clamped down on capital flight out of China and at this week's auction Asian faces were relatively few and far between.

Coincidentally, City Sales also had a 50% sales rate at their latest apartment auction, although it was a much smaller affair.

Details of the individual properties offered at both auctions and the prices achieved on those that sold are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

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48 Comments

The boom is back

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A little bit silly but imagine if people were congregating to bid on gold bullion.

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Maybe it's what we all need instead - the housing sector coming back to sane growth levels instead of going into extremes. That'd be a win-win.

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I think you need to check the prices that they were selling for. Big drops now that fear of not getting out is taking grip.

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... The end is nigh according to ocelot

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..... and your very presence is an omen.

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"A notable feature at the auction was the relative lack of Asian faces given the size of the crowd. Auckland has a sizeable Asian population and you would expect them to have a reasonable presence at most auctions. If this same auction had been held three years ago at the height of the Chinese buying frenzy, Asian buyers would likely have dominated the bidding. But their numbers have dwindled since the Chinese Government clamped down on capital flight out of China and at this week's auction Asian faces were relatively few and far between."

Thanks for pointing out what so many people (and the mainstream media) don't want to realise. Now take cover, you'll probably get called racist!

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Yep totally agree that it's a fair comment to make. I think the only ones that try to use the racist card would be the Real Estate Agents missing out on those over inflated sales commissions. Seems they only wanted to recognize the elephant in the room until that it was gone along with all the money.

Now we're left with all the poo; with unaffordable property prices in our main cities, low sales and now heading towards mortgage soft lending with chasing the interest rates to near zero. Thanks National Party and Mr Key!

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Yeah what a rock star economy

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It’s amazing how the ethnicity of auction participants wasn’t mentioned previously. However from the look of the accompanying image to this article, it looks like the grey and balding ‘equity release’ brigade are present, (am I allowed to say that or is it ageist? - sod it) either that or the average age of the first home buyer has just shot up into the early 50’s. What did Tony tell us, ‘Trend is your friend, always goes up.’ - last turkeys into the field before the Christmas shoot. God bless em all, doing their little bit to keep the credit growth going and the economy going a bit longer. We could really do with someone buying the over 2 million stuff though (sales down 43% first five months Y on Y), as that would be far more helpful for money creation than the 160k flats - these won’t create nearly enough new money. Dig a little deeper gents, Your Country needs you.

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The housing market is alive And well in most parts of NZ, including Christchurch which is being rebuilt and will become the city of choice in Australasia for more and more over the next few years!

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Poised to snatch the title from Hamilton of "city of the future!!!!!!"

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"The housing market is alive And well in most parts of NZ" fair comment, the big exclusion is Auckland though and that is 1/3 of the market and tends to lead the trend for the rest of the country... including Christchurch (if that is part of NZ, cant remember)

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The point is, there will always be a place in NZ where "prices are going up" - and that's the only thing spruikers need. When Christchurch tanks, it will be "Timaru's still going strong". Then when Timaru tanks, it will be... I don't know, Lumsden?

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It's a wonderful day in Timaru today, just stunning. : )

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Palmerston North is certainly holding its own.

Property developers in Palmerston North are hungry for land in top areas like Hokowhitu.

TTP

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ha-ha :) yes, very true. Spruikers are certainly proving their denial when they select provincial towns to press their (pointless) point. We've all witnessed REA-TTP and his precious Central Auckland come under price pressure after predicting the FBB would have zero effect. Now he's talking up the entire country from a paddock somewhere in Palmerston North!

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Didn't you know Palmy has taken the crown of City of the Future from Hamilton.
It has an unstoppable economy fuelled by a world class university and high tech agriculture sector that is going to draw more and more people.

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Timaru is not pointless at all to me, I own a Motel there and I'm minding it while my managers are on leave

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You are (you're) being very considerate Yvil, it pays to look after your people.

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Houseworks, Yvil, your comments are a timely reminder you've both previously been caught out making stuff up on an this anonymous forum.

Perhaps it's time to give it a rest?

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RP, your envy seems to have no limit, you get really irked if someone is doing well and you can't help yourself trying to bring others down. Bringing others down to your level will not make you better off or a happier person RP, quite the opposite

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Yvil, if it makes you feel better, keep on telling yourself this stuff :) It's a cop-out to label others as envious when there is just cause to doubt your success stories. If members (like yourself and Houseworks) read at times as a shallow, bored commentators who snipe, make up lies to undermine the truth, what feedback can one expect? Congratulations? Sorry, but you just don't read as a successful person in their own right. Look at the likes of commentators such as BigDaddy for clues about real life financial success and forsight. If you are indeed wealthy in real life, you likely inherited it all.

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"If you are indeed wealthy in real life, you likely inherited it all."

Perfect example of you not being able to accepts other's success, again, exactly as I was saying above. I'll let you have the last word, enjoy the weekend, life can be great when you stop moaning

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And so what if Yvil or anyone else has received an inheritance, there are plenty of people who have, what is that to you? Are you still resentful of coming from the wrong side of the tracks and being left diddly squat?

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Actually I grew up on the 5th floor of an apartment building, my parents never owned their own house, my mum still lives in that same apartment! (my dad passed away). My parents were middle working class, I'm not complaining at all I had a happy childhood.

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Thanks HW, it allows me to get a feel for my business first hand and yes, if you look after your staff well, they will generally do a great job

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TM2. Have you got a real name?

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slim pickings

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Pleasing to see that City Sales most recent auction results on 19 June also showed a 50 percent success rate, which coincidentally equaled that of Ray White's. With only one property not being sold , it truly was a remarkable day .

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Let me run that calc. 50% success rate, with 1 not sold. That means that 1 sold? Glory hallelujah!

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I love the term "mega apartment auction" ! Had me thinking 250~300 units were being sold... 20 was a bit of an eyebrow raiser :)

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It's like they saved up all their best apartments for months and months and months, then released them into one big Briscoes sale. Even then, they only managed a 50% clearance rate. Still a bit below the mid-late 60's that Melbourne and Sydney consider rock bottom but hey, it's a start right?

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I see a redneck or two were at the auction.

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These guys are kidding themselves if they will get anything close to 500K for this Gore street leaker:

https://www.barfoot.co.nz/property/residential/auckland-city/city-centr…

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Put in a low offer and see if they snap your hand off. Does it have good internet coverage?

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"A noticeable feature of the auction was the relative lack of Asian faces"
Does your face now dictate your country of birth?

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no, but please let's not pretend Chinese nationals (or their NZ based 'reps') were not a big part of the whole bubble problem.
Mr Key has an awful lot to answer for.

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Yes and just remember Mr Key did very, very well out of his property ponzi scheme. Selling his Parnell home for $20 million at the height of the market in 2017 It went to a buyer from China (His property 2014 RV was 13million), he virtually doubled house prices in just three years!

According to The Property Report showed Parnell values had increased around 48 per cent or $749,335 in the three years since June 2014 from a median value of $912,000 to $1,626,300. So it just goes to show how much money laundering and overseas investors pumped up the market in central Auckland and beyond.

The National Business Review Article: Key's $20m mansion sale great timing for him, not so much for English
https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/keys-20m-mansion-sale-great-timing-him-po…
The Herald: Sir John Key sells off Parnell mansion for $20m
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11…

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Had nothing to do with National's housing policy though.

Bwaahahahahahaha!

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the fact that the demographic has changed so marked-ably indicates that the FBB and anti money laundering laws may be having an effect, so worth reporting, isnt it?

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It could all come to head quicker than everyone may realize and it's not just NZ.
Yahoo Finance article: Why the Barefoot Investor thinks the Aussie economy is trash - much like Ireland in 2007
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/why-the-barefoot-investor-thinks-the-…

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With very low mortgage interest rates, poorly performing term deposit rates and a healthy rental market it would appear that reasonable priced properties are desirable and apartments would fit into this category. Lower quartile properties represent an investment opportunity for people with spare money as it is underpinned by rental yields and likely to keep up with inflation.

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Fair point, although buyer beware on lower quartile stuff.
Still challenging to get lower quartile properties in Auckland returning more than 5% gross.
However, with low deposit rates, is 5% the new 6%? Be interested in investors' thoughts.

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I dont really bother with straight up rentals even if 5 to 6 percent, pretty boring

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Inflating property and now bringing gangs into our lives, great:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12242844

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Xia came to New Zealand in 2003 as a student to study English. In 2009 she was granted permanent residency as the partner of a New Zealand resident she has since separated from.

Hao has applied for residency as Xia's husband but he said he currently has a student visa.

Man we're such a soft touch in this country.

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Try not to get excited. Compared to first 5m of 2017 apartment sales in Auckland down 44% according to REINZ website

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