February auction activity down by more than half compared to a year ago

Property / news

Dramatic slide in the number of homes being auctioned but the sales rate has barely changed over the last year

7th Mar 23, 11:58am by Greg Ninness

The number of residential properties being auctioned is about half what it was a year ago.

Interest.co.nz monitored 832 residential property auctions throughout the country last month, of which 303 were sold under the hammer, giving an overall sales rate of 36%.

Of the properties that sold, 36% sold for amounts that were more than or equal to their rating valuations, while 64% sold for less than their rating valuations.

That suggests auction rooms have been a lot quieter this year than they were in February last year, when interest.co.nz monitored 1395 auctions around the country.

However the numbers from February this year are not directly comparable with February last year, because interest.co.nz altered its auction monitoring process late last year. This resulted in the website monitoring a greater number of auctions in a broader range of locations.

Adjusting the figures to allow for those changes suggests overall auction activity was down by 55% in February this year compared with February last year.

Perhaps surprisingly, there has been very little movement in the overall sales rate over the same period.

In February this year 36% of the properties auctioned sold under the hammer, down from 40% in February last year.

The table below shows the regional breakdown of all the auctions monitored by interest.co. in February this year.

Details of the individual properties auctioned at all of the monitored auctions, including the selling prices and rating valuations of the properties that sold, are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

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40 Comments

by IT GUY | 7th Mar 23, 12:12pm 1678144354

Obviously buyers are Being Slow.

by Retired-Poppy | 7th Mar 23, 3:08pm 1678154939

Yes, they're a lot quicker at "Being Slow" now....

Words like "dramatic slide" best describes the ride for the flippers of yesteryear.

by Nellbell | 7th Mar 23, 12:44pm 1678146241

Looks like Christchurch is really holding up the nationwide stats. Also bottom half of North Island had the Property Brokers “Bid Day Out” during the month of Feburary that saw auctions widely promoted around the regions, we don’t normally ever have them here, but saw 1 property sold by auction this month.

by IT GUY | 7th Mar 23, 1:31pm 1678149071

It went really well then?

by starrider | 7th Mar 23, 2:58pm 1678154323

The bid day out ended up being an absolute snoozefest as the only folks bidding were vendors, prior to the properties being passed in.

by Nzdan | 7th Mar 23, 3:30pm 1678156230

One big marketing fest for all the vendors that have failed to sell over the past few months.

"Come one, come all, come get yourself a bargain down at the Bid Day Out!" 🎵 circus march plays 🎵

Meanwhile no bargains to be had as vendors hold out for peak prices.

by King of the whiners | 7th Mar 23, 12:48pm 1678146514

It is hard not to see some serious falls in the REINZ house price indices in the next 3-6monthly results - of the order of 1.5-2.5% per month.

I note pundits are doing the best not to characterize the existing 16.2% plunge as anything too serious, with mealy mouthed words like 'a lukewarm market' rather than 'crash'.

Let's see how they will deal with the reality of +25% falls...........

by geografree | 7th Mar 23, 1:36pm 1678149404

Yeah, wild that none of public commentators have mapped out what this crash could turn into based on fundamentals.

by Hemi Ti Wire | 7th Mar 23, 1:11pm 1678147876

When the greedy manipulation by the real estate industry gets real and stops over valuing properties, based on a "Homes" or "one roof" bullshit algorithms, and the home owners stop buying the spin, then they will come to the realization that they will need to drop thier Prices to pre COVID values to get a sale ....

They can do that now or they can do it later .. but they will have to do it once they all realize the country is fiscally rooted;

by Nellbell | 7th Mar 23, 1:23pm 1678148616

There are a few good agents in our area who are listing at better prices but most seem to be quoting high values to vendors just to get the listing, mind you they are then telling us that the vendors expectations are too high. Trouble is here there are still a few uninformed purchasers who are paying high prices occasionally, which is astounding.

We have a few expensive properties purchased through the upturn now back on the market, trying to get what they paid for them.

I agree with KoW it feels like the market is about to take a further deep dip.

by Hemi Ti Wire | 7th Mar 23, 1:17pm 1678148223

using auction data as a way to measure the vibe of the market is dumb ..it's a random variable with no real intrinsic value...

what percentage of listings are auctioned?

what percentage of sales are auctioned.

Activity at auctions is mostly tyre kickers v bidders. Who cares?

by Nellbell | 7th Mar 23, 1:29pm 1678148958

Auction data is the most up to date indicator of how the market is moving. It’s in real time if you are happy to sit and watch it online, or a day or two latter if you use the excellent Interest auction results page. All other data is at least 2-6 weeks out of date (REINZ data which reports on unconditional sales) or up to 4 months out of date for QV or Corelogic data which reports on data at time of settlement.

The market is moving so fast at present, best to look at the freshest data you can.

by Hemi Ti Wire | 7th Mar 23, 2:03pm 1678150996

Rubbish. The market is slow.

Auctions are not working! For 70% of the properties being auctioned. in turn auctions are less than 10% of sales!!!

so 90% of sales is being missed because the USELESS MANIPULATIVE REINZ WON'T RELEASE DAILY SALES DATA ( CONTRACTS THAT GAVE GONE UNCONDITIONAL)

USING AUCTION DATA, WHEN IT DOES NOT REPRESENT 90% OF THE SALES, IS FORGERY!!!

by Greg Ninness | 7th Mar 23, 2:06pm 1678151215

Oh dear.

by IT GUY | 7th Mar 23, 2:18pm 1678151893

Agree people have to work with the data they have... you can also form good working relationships with real estate people......

by Retired-Poppy | 7th Mar 23, 2:33pm 1678152837

Something tells me Hemi is not in a hurry to form meaningful relationships with Real Estate people - lol!

by Hemi Ti Wire | 7th Mar 23, 3:58pm 1678157919

Bull crap .. that's excepting mediocrity and spin from the Industry spin doctors ..

Thats what stuffs the market up and costs sellers 3% if thier house equity for the pleasure.

Auctions are the cess pit of RE sales

by Hemi Ti Wire | 7th Mar 23, 3:53pm 1678157628

What percentage of RE sales is Auctions?…..

A very small proportion!.

What's stopping the RE industry from daily logging of all contracts that go unconditional and putting the collective national DATA ( just basic numbers) out there

Your telling me that analysis of auction activity is a good way to determine market sales when it ...

1. Represents a small segment of the sales by selling method.

2. It stalls the sales of 70% of auction listings from sale ( generally selling by negotiation in the end) ...

The REINZ could gather dailiy sales data but it would be against their " confusion marketing strategy" to be transparent and helpfull

Oh dear 🙄🙄

by Retired-Poppy | 7th Mar 23, 4:31pm 1678159864

Do you remember when at the height of RE froth when 90% of sales were via the auction method? What was going on then Hemi? When FOMO was at its height, sellers and agents often reaped more using the auction method. Now, they're about as popular with sellers as floating mortgages. there is certainly a deficit of realization amongst sellers that's for sure!

by Hemi Ti Wire | 7th Mar 23, 5:14pm 1678162470

That just proves the random up and down nature if auction stats

by Yvil | 7th Mar 23, 5:06pm 1678161998

It must be true, Hemi (which means half), wrote it in bold and CAPITALS !!!

by Hemi Ti Wire | 7th Mar 23, 5:16pm 1678162591

No. It's just easier to scan thru all the posts / drivel to find my one!🙄🖕😂😂😂

by Retired-Poppy | 7th Mar 23, 6:03pm 1678165421

Yvil, there's no need to be a smart ass. Hemi in Maori means "God is gracious".

What does "Yvil" stand for?

by Rob Reid | 7th Mar 23, 9:13pm 1678176838

Maybe I can help. I typed "what does Yvil mean?" into Google and the hits are all like: evil, Evil definition and meaning, Evil - Wikipedia, and, most ominously, 12 warning signs that you are dealing with an evil person, etc

What's in a name?

by ngakonui gold | 7th Mar 23, 3:33pm 1678156395

Went to an auction in Hamilton early Feb.A section with a burn't out house on the market.Sold for 411k with 4 serious buyers chasing it.

The bank will be pleased with that result.

by lostinawoods | 7th Mar 23, 3:40pm 1678156837

No Wellington in the table?

by Rob Reid | 7th Mar 23, 4:06pm 1678158396

Perhaps a nil return.

by Hemi Ti Wire | 7th Mar 23, 5:20pm 1678162803

Too embarrassing for Cindy or Bindy or whoever is CEO of the REINZ this month

by General Comment | 7th Mar 23, 4:40pm 1678160457

No Wellington auctions listed yet this year in Interest's tables. Auctions have never been popular in Wellington, and even less so now.

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/residential-auction-results?region=…-

by polygonalvector | 8th Mar 23, 12:16pm 1678230994

Exception to the rule I'm sure, but auction in Tawa on Feb 16 was surprising :- $4.5m on The Crescent: The luxury Wellington homes defying downturn price cuts, All things property, under OneRoof

"There was also strong demand for a four-bedroom lifestyle property in Tawa last week, which saw 19 bidders fight it out for the property that sold under the hammer for $2.79m – above the RV of $2.47m."

Action was on Feb 16 - 19 registered bidders, only 4-5 folks actually bid up to 2.2m and 2-3 of those stayed in to 2.5m, then just 2.

Of note was that the property was never 'on the market' and only after bidding stopped was the reserve revealed as $2.6m

Auction definitely worked for the vendor in that instance - a couple of folks really really wanted the place.

by DTRH | 7th Mar 23, 6:55pm 1678168557

People just need to understand house price’s are tumbling take another 30% to 35% off and the bottom might be found after this hopefully the government will put a law in place to stop speculators and keep house price’s from raising above inflation

by HW2 | 7th Mar 23, 7:16pm 1678169801

It must piss you off the market has not collapsed like you said it would

by Retired-Poppy | 7th Mar 23, 7:19pm 1678169991

by HW2 | 7th Mar 23, 7:16pm 1678169801

It must piss you off the market has not collapsed like you said it would"

Ooooh someone's not a happy camper tonight...

by Juzz | 7th Mar 23, 7:26pm 1678170397

At what point are you willing to admit house prices are crashing hard?

by Retired-Poppy | 7th Mar 23, 7:47pm 1678171639

Spruikers have made moving goal posts for the definition of a crash a modern day art form. At every opportunity they seek to trivialize the extent of the falls and the pending economic downturn. Its not like its an admission they are the biggest fools.....or is it?

by HW2 | 7th Mar 23, 10:26pm 1678181166

The predictions from dtrh (and others) was for significantly higher price falls. Therefore the prices have not fallen like he said they would.

by Retired-Poppy | 8th Mar 23, 6:49am 1678211362

Prices have fallen way more than you said they would that's for sure, and they're still falling. Let's see what the percentage falls total up to by mid 2024. Where will you place the goal posts then? I think a Spruiker would prefer tongue removal over calling this a crash... 😝

by DTRH | 8th Mar 23, 8:54am 1678218867

Sounds like it’s pissed you off I understand that this is just the start,20% off in just over a year now watch as house price falls continue to accelerate. HW2 You make yourself seem very foolish crying about housing crash especially as so many have tried to enlighten you over the years.

by IT GUY | 8th Mar 23, 9:16am 1678220192

Feel sad for spruiky spruikers not https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/131427521/townhouse-de…

by beau | 8th Mar 23, 10:38am 1678225124

YOLO