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Residential property auction activity appears to be slowly lifting from its winter lows

Property
Residential property auction activity appears to be slowly lifting from its winter lows

The sales rate remained above 50% for the second week in a row at the latest residential property auctions monitored by interest.co.nz.

Interest.co.nz monitored 166 auctions around the country in the week from 11 to 17 August, up from 131 in the previous week.

Sales were achieved on 94 of the 166, giving a sales clearance rate of 57% compared to 60% the previous week.

Of those, 83 were sold under the hammer, three were sold immediately after their auctions, and eight were sold prior to their auctions.

Of the 72 properties that didn't sell, 69 were passed in, two were withdrawn from sale and one had its auction postponed.

Where selling prices could be matched with a property's rating valuation (RV), 53% sold for more than their RV, 43% sold for less and 4% sold for the same as their RV.

Sales rates and prices followed similar trends in the Auckland market, where there is the greatest level of auction activity.

Sales were achieved on 56% of the properties at the Auckland auctions, with 49% achieving prices above their RV, 4% selling for the same as their RV and 47% selling for less than their RV.

While it is too early to say that that the usual spring lift in activity is underway, the results of the last couple of weeks suggest the market has bounced off its lows.

Anecdotal evidence suggests agents and vendors are also being more realistic about which properties to take to auction and with their expectations around price, which is helping to lift the success rate.

Details of the individual properties offered at all of the auctions monitored by interest.co.nz are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

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88 Comments

Dead cat no more, it is waking up..

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Just because it keeps bouncing doesn't mean it's not dead.

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Still waiting for that comment about CHCH price has been growing by leaps and bounds

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Agree.

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I see that prices are starting to adjust for wage earner levels, that's why the sales are starting to improve. Here's a few recent examples:-

* 29 Mariners View Road, Beach Haven, Auckland, North Shore. Rating Value: $820,000, Sold for: $605,000

* 103/70 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland. Rating Value: $660,000, Sold for: $387,000

* 1814/23 Whitaker Pl, Grafton, Auckland Rating Value: $370,000 Sold for: $152,000

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Whitaker place was a leaker I believe.

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And this from the agents listing information for 29 mariners view: "The problem is the place doesn't have a CCC. Well, the problem is slightly more than that - it's plaster and it doesn't have a CCC. 
The thing is, the owners get it, they know that the money is probably land value at best. It really is a case of cash up and move on."
CJ099 you would not look so foolish if you had reviewed the details BEFORE posting.

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The only ones that look foolish are you Real Estate Agents fighting over scraps. There's still relatively a handful of properties that are selling successfully at auction and a good chunk of those are selling below RV or had you not noticed that fact. And all the properties that are selling outside of auctions are highly likely to be selling far below the RV's particularly for Auckland.

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Yup, that Whitaker place, I stayed there as AirBnB accommodation last year.. damp as!

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Doesn't have a CCC, yet can operate as an AirBnB accommodation? Is that legal?

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I don't think AirBnB cares..
If and when the owner makes an insurance claim, it might be a different story

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More sold above RV than below RV. Be wary of cherry picking.

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CL099, your obsession in attempting to talk the market down looks desperate. So what if you found 3 properties that sold for less than the CV? Overall more houses sold above CV than below CV, it's in the article above

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Yvil you know full well that I'm always armed with the facts and figures, presenting them like I did today in the earlier post about significant property price declines. Why are they significant, it's because it shows a consistent shift in the market in a downwards direction and by the way it was still only a small handful of properties that sold. Some people like yourself are rather myopic and have gold fish memories. They can't even recognize market forces at work and how that effects NZ, Like this one for instance: Exposing Australia's housing crisis | 60 Minutes Australia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB6yM9puTY0

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That story is not new CJ I have to pull you up if you're still promoting it. The Australia markets are improving quite a bit now

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No you haven't (Not that I noticed you anyway). That 60 Minutes Australia documentary was published very recently; Published on Aug 15, 2019
Exposing Australia's housing crisis | 60 Minutes Australia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB6yM9puTY0

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It was hashed together bits of older stories and unused footage. Why make new content when you can blend a few older stories...

https://youtu.be/BbFvwYVfwq0?t=83 ( Sep 17, 2018)
vs
https://youtu.be/AB6yM9puTY0?t=695 (Aug 15th 2019)

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CJ, "Yvil you know full well that I'm always armed with the facts and figures"

Absolutely not, I know full well that you are a cheer leader for house prices to drop and you can only see one side and that you pick the few stories that suit your view and ignore the others, that's what I know full well

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Spoken like a true Real Estate Agent Yvil. Where are your figures by the way?? We all know that the auction results are much much lower that they were a few years a go and prices are slipping or do you refuse to acknowledge that too? Look how frantic you are attacking with no facts to support you argument. All you can do is bang your little fists like a child. Grow up!!

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Hi CJ099,

As regular readers of this blog know only too well, you are very accomplished........

....... in making misleading and deceptive comments.

Your approach is tiresome. Please - let's see some integrity from you in future.

TTP

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LOL it's the Real Estate Agent tag team!! Hello Agent TTP! Here's credible facts for you, publish just yesterday: "Auckland City house prices - The median house price was $860,000 in July, down from $990,000 last month". Now that's a huge drop can't disagree with that can you!
Go read first line on page 3 - Key Drivers. https://www.interest.co.nz/sites/default/files/Aucklandcity-July19.pdf

Your turn TTP, go on provide some facts like I have! :)

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That means the variance in property sales is too broad.
Get back in your high chair.

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Great result, especially with a good portion selling above their RV.

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Rising like a Phoenix from the ashes. The difference being there aren't any ashes.

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Exactly like a phoenix. Which is a mythical creature, only existing in some people's imagination.

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If you add up all the CVs and all the sales prices in the last week of auctions in Auckland, the sales prices were in total $530k higher than their CVs.

But if you remove the obvious outlier (29 Cooper Street, which had a full renovation since its valuation), the sales price are in total $270k lower than CVs.

I'm sure those on both sides of the slap fight will take this data as a victory, but there you go.

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So the devil is in the detail........

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Always is with small data sets. As pointed out above, one of the ones miles under CV is a leaky home.

While obviously impossible (unless some martyr wants to volunteer), the only way this sort of data would be properly accurate is if someone went through each property, and removed all the wack outliers (leaky homes, massive renos etc).

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I thought that's what the HPI basically is already?

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Nope.
The REINZ HPI will be susceptible to this bias, also.

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Yea unfortunately there is no way to account for property specific increase/decrease in value due to damage/improvements, other than knowing about it specifically, and excluding it from the data.

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Ya don't necessarily need to exclude it. Just control for it.

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Why would you ever include recent renos in the data?
If I'm purchasing a property I'm not going to pay a SP/CV multiple that includes over-egged data.

Of course that is going to skew it.

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Demand from FHB exist and if the vendor is serious with realistic price should be able to sell the property at dcent price but for that vendor has to be motivated as the RE Agents says.

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So with the impending next boom starting (cough cough), how may bulls have have used the last 12 months to buy more houses and if yes how many (serious question not intended for a beat up)?

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Yes we have...walking the talk...very happy too

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How many?

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myob

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If you're "walking the talk...very happy too" I'm sure you would be glad to let us all know. Or are you scared that you're going to be faced with negative equity soon. Either that or you're just fake news!

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And what is it you do for a living CJ099 and how much do you earn?

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I work in the Tech Industry, so I'm not Real Estate Agent like you. :)

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You really don't understand property, if you did you would know from my posts that I'm not an agent. (btw I have no problem with RE agents)

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And you obviously do not understand basic economics.

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Maybe not but I understand property and it's made me very wealthy : )

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I very much doubt it, sadly if your property is in Auckland those capital gains are slipping away. In Auckland City the median house price was $860,000 in July, down from $990,000 last month. https://www.interest.co.nz/sites/default/files/Aucklandcity-July19.pdf

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Trying to bring other people down is not going to make you better off CJ, the only reason for belittling others is because of insecurity & envy. Mind your own business more CJ it will help you much more

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"Mind your own business more CJ it will help you much more" Threatening behavior Yvil and trying to intimidate people in to not commenting on this site, certainly will not help your property values rise it just makes you look more desperate. How about trying to support your arguments with facts.

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It's a shame you interpret my advice like that. When I said "mind your own business more"I mean look after your own business more, as in take care of your business/life really well, rather than being so concerned about other people's lives, it will be much better for you. Chill, look after your own life really well and have a great weekend

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You have used threatening trolling behavior towards me before Yvil.

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Yvil - I admire your patience dealing with the likes of CJ, Such commentators show their Narcissistic traits which I feel have no place on this site. The market facts are the latest sales figures ! I am pleased to report that we settled on a property on the Kapiti Coast yesterday opposite the beach, still a active market here, we are diversifying to have some property out of Auckland, that's property number 3 on the Kapiti coast. Have a great weekend the sun is shining here !

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Good on you Shoreman, can I ask why the KC. Capital (pun) growth from wgtn homeowners spreading their wings or moving to retirement pastures? Or more and more daily commuters venturing north perhaps. Personally we like thames coast it's a very easy drive from waikato districts and Hamilton, not so from auckland if at peak time maybe

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Thanks Houseworks, Kapiti Coast has alot of upside with the new motorway opening, Paraparaumu Beach is a mini Mt Maunganui with a micro climate, Kapiti Island shelters the coast so the beach is like a East Coast beach but with amazing sunsets. The whole coast has been under valued but is really buzzing now plus it's just feels nice. Cheers

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Wealthy maybe.... How about happy? I think if I was so wealthy like you say you are then I'd be spending much less time on this website trolling all us doom and gloom merchants. It makes me think that you're nervous about something, like a market crash...

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Thanks for your concern about my happiness Fritz, I am very happy indeed. I like reading and commenting on this site.
I hope you're happy too and that you have a great weekend

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Alright then, keep your secrets.

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GGP you will get no answers from their ilk ......I wouldn't of even bothered asking, as you wouldn't get the truth anyway, as their livelihood depends on it. However, I must extend kudos to TTP, who did suggest if you don't like the build quality, insulation and weather tightness etc of the current Auckland housing stock - buy the land instead.

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That wasnt the original question, now this is just a typical ambush. I don't care too much if you form your own opinion because its clear from rising sales numbers that the market is healthy and stable. And credit where it's due to ttp

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Average man's question does actually say "if yes, how many". To be clear I don't care about the answer beyond mild curiosity. I have no idea why it needs to be a secret, however.

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What if I said ten. Do you mind letting us know your investment purchases?

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"What if I said ten"

My curiosity would be sated!

"Do you mind letting us know your investment purchases"

Not much to tell. Saving up to buy my first home, hopefully some time next year.

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"Saving up to buy my first home, hopefully some time next year." Good move GGP its been a long time since we bought a first home and bought/sold more ppor since and I have never regretted any of them. If you have a family, owning a house is the way to go imo.

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I'm actually probably going for an apartment because I hate commuting. No family, either, for now anyway.

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Sorry - why are we comparing sales vs prices? Sales have been good ( vendors meeting the market finally) but prices have been steadily/gradually declining. I don’t agree this relates to the start of the next boom. It’s still better waiting another 6-18 months to see where prices go.

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You ask why are we comparing sales vs prices whilst talking about sales and prices. Weird. The question from averagean was whether the "bulls" aka active investors had bought a property(ies) of late...nothing was said about there about prices or good deals....if you want to talk about prices that is an easy and delightful topic

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@houseworks, I was more referring to the suggestion of the 'impeding next boom'
Price data recently shows minor declines each month, hence it's a bold statement to make that a boom is around the corner when this article is mainly talking about sales at auctions without too much mention of price (other that sold at below/over RV).

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.

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Any ideas around forecasting rural land prices?

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Yesterday headline presented a bad sentiment and today's positive and now wait for the next headline (Probaly next week) will be indicating, how bad the market is (yes I will be their to remind that I said so :)

How one interprets the data and what one wants to project is the key word. Glass is Half full or Half Empty but still I stick that market is gradually falling (Not with the speed that one would have expect because of low interest rate) but is and will fall in near future so FHB wait and watch - Buy only if one finds a deal or what is the rush for..........

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Anyone thinking of buying in Hamilton. Lisa Lewis is going for its mayoral election, no doubt some services will be stripped and running bare!

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Thats true. Danny Cancian running for tauranga takes the cake. Many former Bella Vista homeowners are keen to get their hands on his assets.

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Christchurch sales numbers are still very good.
Still “as is where is” properties still having reasonable interest in them.
A very balanced market indeed, and no sign of any downside.

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"Christchurch sales numbers are still very good" the key word here is "still". As Yoda would say "some nervousness I sensed!"

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watch out -- REMEMBER THE GURUS, who came out of their caves in 2008/9 and advised prospective buyers, very convincingly, to delay buying as it was all going to crash. They went on with their very opinionated rubbish. We know what the market did, as it always does. It was flattish, relatively speaking, for about a couple of years and prices started slowly shifting Northbound around 2011/12 and went right up to the tip of the north pole and only paused after doubling and trebling. Whenever, no matter when, as long as you can afford it, take a calculated risk, and dive into it, like you do in any business proposition.>>>> you will not go wrong, GUARANTEED.

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" as long as you can afford it"

Nail and head. It could keep going up, but its at a point where its ny on unaffordable on today's average wage.

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Given current interest rates, LVR's and minimum equity amounts,

1) some locations are unaffordable for owner occupiers with a 20% deposit - Auckland & Queenstown Lakes
2) some locations are affordable for owner occupiers with a 20% deposit - Whanganui & Invercargill

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/house-price-income-multiples

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Chairman, the ChCh market is only going to get even better as it is rebuilt.
We have been thru plenty and yet prices and popularity increases.

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Christchurch rents are cheap because of oversupply. They were cheap before the EQ, popped up for a few years due to supply / demand, and now back where they were. Look how many houses for sale or for rent are empty, and have been for some time. Yes , its balanced, yes the yield is fine if you can get a tenant. Cull out a few of the rotten "as is" places to get things back in a balance. How likely is that to happen?

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If you think CHCH rents are cheap then that is great.
We have got no empty properties and when we do have a tenant that moves on, we very rarely have the property empty for very long, one week on rare occasions.
A lot of the As is where is properties are just fine and had very little damage.

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If they are fine, why are they being sold as is, I have been told that tenants cant get contents insurance, if the house the are living in isn't insured. Is the landlord underwriting tenants insurance? What proportion of houses in Christchurch are uninsured. Does anyone know?

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Interesting places are selling in chch. Watched one auction on Gavl app which sold this morning, Lyttelton bungalow, well contested.

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Housework’s, that property at Lytelton was “as is where is” with no insurance.

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Yeah that was disclosed I know. In good tidy condition on a fairly level site. Any idea why it was As Is. Cheers

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Probably floor levels out over tolerance.
Lyttelton got a hiding in the quakes.

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A whole new meaning for "fiscal hole".(Referring to Lisa Lewis mayoral candidacy.

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Facts

- clearance rate are suddenly hitting 50%+ in Akld
- less than 50% are now selling for more than the 2017 RVs
- total volume cleared at auction are similar or slightly more than this time last year

What does that tell you?

- Less homes are going to auction
- prices could be weakening

Maybe there is more urgency to sell, maybe only the more likely to sell are going to auction but there are still some buyers out there but I wouldnt expect the sales volume to be huge for August.

Who knows maybe the lower OCR rates are having an impact

Going to be an interesting 6 months coming up, that is for sure!!!!!

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This statement from a report in (australian) financial review
"The housing market surged back to life in the first big auction weekend since the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate to a record low of 1.25 per cent on June 4."
No more negative property headlines in aussie or at least for now :) auction clearance rates significantly higher. Does this also mean oz house prices rising strongly, I dont know.

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one data point is not a trend..

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Quite an interesting article, from the usually very spruiking Herald. Suggests some spreading weakness ahead.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12…

"The North Shore has been at the centre of the current slowdown in Auckland's housing market, with high prices, the foreign-buyer ban and a lack of pressure on vendors putting brakes on activity," Vaughn said.

"The region's housing market is a sign of what is happening and is going to happen to the rest of Auckland and other high-growth areas around New Zealand."

James Wilson, director of valuation innovation at Valocity, agreed: "This part of Auckland has traditionally attracted the international market and higher-net-worth individuals, so boomed first and then went off the boil sooner."

He expected the negative growth in the North Shore (-4 per cent in early 2018 then -5 per cent in the first half of 2019) to fan out to suburbs in Auckland Central, Franklin, Rodney, Manukau and Papakura.

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