Low volumes but the sales rate perked up at Barfoot & Thompson's latest auctions

Property

Sales rates ranged from zero to 60% sold at Barfoot & Thompson's latest auctions

9th Jul 19, 9:41am by Greg Ninness

Auction numbers remained at a low level in Barfoot & Thompson's auction rooms last week although the sales rate perked up a bit.

The agency marketed 72 residential properties for auction last week (July 1-7), down from 85 the week before.

But there was a higher sales ratio, with sales achieved on 28 properties, giving a sales rate of 39% compared to 27% the previous week.

At the main auctions where at least 10 properties were offered, the sales rates ranged from 27% at the North Shore auction, to 36% at both the Manukau auction and the Shortland St auction on July 3, where most of the properties offered were from central Auckland suburbs such as Glendowie, St Heliers, One Tree Hill, Epsom and Mt Eden.

On-site auctions also continue to perform comparatively well, although none of the five properties at the Pukekohe auction was sold (see the table below for the full results).

Details of all of the properties offered are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

The comment stream on this story is now closed.

Barfoot & Thompson Auction Results 1-7 July 2019
Date	Venue	Sold	Sold Prior	Sold Post	Not Sold	Postponed	Withdrawn	Total	% Sold
1-6 July	On-site	3			2			5	60%
2-Jul	Manukau	8		2	9	3		22	36%
2-Jul	Shortland St, CBD	2	1		3	1		7	43%
3-Jul	Shortland St, CBD	5	1		7	1		14	36%
3-Jul	Pukekohe				4		1	5	0
4-Jul	North Shore	3			11			14	27%
4-Jul	Kerikeri			1				1	100%
4-Jul	Shortland St, CBD	1						1	100%
5-Jul	Shortland St, CBD	1			2			3	33%
Total	All venues	23	2	3	38	5	1	72	39%

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31 Comments

by FamilyGuy | 9th Jul 19, 10:03am 1562623425

I think one needs to look at the trends from last couple of weeks to find anything meaningful. As we all know that there is a bit of randomness in any fine grained data. Not sure, what is so special about this one week that has been analyzed in this article.

by Glitzy | 9th Jul 19, 10:08am 1562623734

So it seems Auctions are going the way of the steam train ~there are still some around but slowly and steadily everyone is using something else instead.

I thought I'd have a look at transaction volumes at the top end of the market using some available data. It's a slow process as the systems aren't built for churning stats but here's a quick snippet for your morning coffee.

Herne Bay, Aucklands most expensive suburb by most polls.

Transaction volume over NZD2mm during 2018 ... 38 properties. Ytd 2019... 5. Yep five.

Make of that what you will. Might take a while but I will have a look at Ponsonby next. There might be an interesting story there ...

Enjoy your coffee.

by mikekirk29 | 9th Jul 19, 11:23am 1562628214

Glitzy,

sales are down more the higher the price.
Furthermore, the decline is accelerating in the upper brackets but not in the lower ones.
Averages are misleading

by Glitzy | 9th Jul 19, 1:17pm 1562635057

Mike that's certainly true. I also get the impression that if you look at top level numbers for say Auckland as a town it doesn't tell the whole story of how fast the transactions at the top end of established neighbourhoods are slowing. This is because there are new builds in places like Viaduct / Winyard Quarter that simply didn't exist last year. Also these places are still an option for foreign buyers.

There is a huge slow down in districts like Remuera, Orakei, Parnell, St Heliers etc. Old money areas that were hoovered up by foreign buyers. Its these areas that will lead the market down.

by mikekirk29 | 9th Jul 19, 4:32pm 1562646768

Glitzy, the main sufferers are those with property they want to sell over $1.5m, or an apartment, or a section.
Section sales and apartment sales were up on 2017 in the winter of 2018, front running the ban.
So, this winter they are getting hammered in June to June comparison , much worse than in May. Especially in Auckland central.
Residential sales holding at about 18% down each month. But 3 and 4 beds sales doing well lower down the price brackets.
Also, the sector of market priced 600-1.2m has increased its share of sales a good amount, while top two brackets are stagnating.

by Yvil | 9th Jul 19, 6:10pm 1562652613

If it's true that expensive houses are not selling anymore and more cheaper houses are selling then the average sale price will be significantly down, even if individual house prices have not actually going down

by Glitzy | 9th Jul 19, 9:12pm 1562663565

Yes, this is def true. REINZ however only publishes the median figures and the broad indicator of HPI neither of which should be affected too much by higher or lower sales volumes at the top end. We need detailed volumes by price brackets for any meaningful analysis of trends.

by Due Diligence | 9th Jul 19, 6:38pm 1562654315

REINZ publishes the HPI for Auckland as a whole & the seven wards/districts within it

by Glitzy | 9th Jul 19, 9:10pm 1562663430

DD, you are correct of course. Edited above.

by Yvil | 9th Jul 19, 7:37pm 1562657877

5 houses at $500k, 3 houses at $1 Mill, 2 houses at $2Mill = median $750k
6 houses at $500k, 3 houses at $1 Mill, 1 house at $2 Mill = median $500k
So yes median should be down top if less top end sales

by RickStrauss | 9th Jul 19, 8:35pm 1562661312

Although, that particular data set there relies on having an even number of items to get that much higher median in the first example (by taking an average of items 5 and 6). Using eleven items decreasing the $2 Mill houses by one and increasing the $500k houses by one results in no change to the median.

Not to say we can expect no significant change in the median ever in the face of fewer high priced sales.

by Nzdan | 10th Jul 19, 7:31am 1562700660

1 House @ $500k, 4 houses @ $1 Mill, 4 houses @ $2 Mill = Median $1 Mill
5 Houses @ $500k, 4 houses @ $1 Mill, 1 house @ $2 Mill = Median $1 Mill

by Yvil | 10th Jul 19, 2:34pm 1562726091

It's arguing for argument's sake. In the real world where hundreds of houses sell, if there are more lower end houses selling and less expensive houses selling, IT WILL DRAG THE MEDIAN AND THE AVERAGE DOWN

by Dogboy | 9th Jul 19, 1:43pm 1562636610

Starts at the top end ,then guess what....

by Yvil | 9th Jul 19, 2:12pm 1562638330

Glitzy, if it helps, I have been looking at listings in greater Ponsonby (Ponsonby, Freemans Bay, Grey Lynn, St Mary's Bay, Herne Bay & Westmere) houses only(no apartments) between $2 - $3 Million for the last 15 months. They started out at 24 listings rose towards the end of 2018 to peak at 34 listings In January 2019 and they have since steadily reduced to 19 listings - 69 Argyle St which is listed 4 times = 16 listings only. That's extremely low

by Yvil | 9th Jul 19, 2:15pm 1562638551

Just had another look Glitzy, listings now down to 12 TWELVE! (15 listings but 69 Argyle St is listed 4 times) in the 6 suburbs mentioned above… no wonder there are few sales

by Glitzy | 9th Jul 19, 2:22pm 1562638970

Yvil, thanks for replying and the analysis. It seems that a lot of places are being pulled from the sales market and being put up for rent. Thus in these suburbs, the top end is pushing rents lower as there is more supply than demand. It's a slow slow process though.

Also of note we are starting to see very small volumes of mortgagee sales. There are two places currently for sale in St Heliers. Will be interesting to see where they sell as combined RV is about 5mm but the existing houses (rented) are very low quality stock.

Will be interesting to see whether developers will bid given the sheer quantity of building in the Eastern bays.

by Yvil | 9th Jul 19, 2:58pm 1562641130

Glitzy, you say: "a lot of places are being pulled from the sales market and being put up for rent"
so where are the people going who were living in the house? I think houses are just being pulled from the market and the vendors are staying put, and keep living in said house

by Glitzy | 9th Jul 19, 4:57pm 1562648275

Yvil, good question. From what I can see there was an awful lot of reno and sell business going on in Ponsonby and Herne Bay. Quite a few of these places that are now hitting the rental market are those renovated places which were on the sales market and were then pulled in favour of renting when the vendor couldn't achieve the price they had hoped for.

I agree too with your point that more folks are staying put ~ if you have an option to delay a sale in a weak market (at the top end) most folks would choose to do so.

by mikekirk29 | 9th Jul 19, 4:26pm 1562646417

Agreed Yvil. Plus they take an age to sell in Rodney for example. 8m minimum. One for 2.5m in Red Beach which is v nice house but not sold in 12m.
And of course the people who have bought since 2015 approx expect that it IS worth $2m plus and the number of buyers up there is 40% of more down on first 6m of 2018.

by custard | 9th Jul 19, 10:08am 1562623738

Continuing poor performance out of the North Shore/East Coast Bays comes as little surprise.

I suspect it was the epicentre of some rather poor behaviour a few years back by both agents and buyer/sellers.

Various recent legislative changes appear to have moderated the worst of those behavioural issues – the market meantime struggles while adjusting to the new paradigm.

by tothepoint - d… | 9th Jul 19, 10:57am 1562626640

It's all a bit ho-hum really.

Mid-winter but things are still chugging along.

A happy day to my collaborators here. (Weather is pleasant enough in Palmerston North.)

TTP

by Chairman Moa | 9th Jul 19, 12:21pm 1562631661

Weather forecast for the next 8 days.. raining for 6 days and overcast for 2.. great weather for ducks!

by Yvil | 9th Jul 19, 2:13pm 1562638410

Weather is even better in Bali TTP : )

by delboy | 9th Jul 19, 12:18pm 1562631524

Kerikeri is going gangbusters. Check out that 100% success rate!

by Nzdan | 9th Jul 19, 1:05pm 1562634313

Didn't even sell on the day though.

by alittle | 9th Jul 19, 2:48pm 1562640536

Still has demand but at the right price and if vendors are ready to meet the market are able to achieve the Sold sign. Also for now the market has stabilized at low end and not falling further.

by richard1965 | 9th Jul 19, 3:34pm 1562643278

"Also for now the market has stabilized at low end and not falling further" BUT for how long.

It is a process that has started and only time will tell where it stops but one thing is for sure that it will be bad for many who have bought in last few years to make quick buck and do not have holding capacity. It is them who will suffer and not people who have flipped the properties number of time and made heaps and money launderers, as for them it does not matter even if they loose 20% to 40% or even more as long as able to convert their unaccounted money and that happened in heaps

by custard | 9th Jul 19, 7:13pm 1562656418

I wonder how many outside of Auckland really understand what took place here in terms of flipping and laundering.

Or were they simply enamoured when the Prime Minister of the time said:

“and people say to me 'Can we have a few of those Chinese buyers in Wellington and other parts of New Zealand because actually we want our house prices to go up'," he said.”

And now that previous Chinese buyers cheer-leader is ANZ’s chairman – and somewhat bizarrely nevertheless feels empowered to lead a submission as to how the RBNZ should regulate matters of capital.

by stuart786786 | 9th Jul 19, 7:25pm 1562657138

It was a real shame, how NZ was sold to Chinesse. Did not realize that NZ is so small that Chinesse could buy NZ number of time and have done it. In fact, will not be surprised if have entered parliament from back door and are major player in decession making to suit them...National loosing is good in this context or would have sold NZ in the name of prosperity - though damage has been done but still...

by custard | 9th Jul 19, 7:37pm 1562657871

Perhaps that’s the price we pay when a currency trader is let loose on the country….