Auction activity remains high as we close in on Christmas

Property / news

Overall sales rate at the latest residential property auctions steady at 40%

11th Dec 23, 1:57pm by Greg Ninness

Residential auction activity dropped last week, but in the context of 2023 and the fact we're getting close to the Christmas break, the number of properties being brought to auction remains high.

Interest.co.nz monitored the auctions of 498 residential properties around the country last week (2-8 December), down from the 2023 record of 566 the previous week (25 November - 1 December).

Even though that was a significant decline from the previous week, it was still the second biggest week for auction activity this year.

Of 498 properties offered at the latest auctions, 197 were sold under the hammer, giving an overall sales rate of 40%.

The sales rate has been 39% or 40% for the last four weeks, which is remarkably consistent, suggesting the market is reasonably steady.

Of the 197 properties that sold under the hammer, 46% fetched prices equal to or above their rating valuations, also little changed from 48% the previous week and 46% the week before that.

It's likely that total auction numbers will continue to decline over the next couple of weeks before all but drying up completely over the Christmas/New Year break.

Details of the individual properties offered at all of the auctions monitored by interest.co.nz, including the selling prices of those that sold, are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

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51 Comments

by Retired-Poppy | 11th Dec 23, 2:15pm 1702257308

Steady as she goes, not up, just down when adjusted for inflation - frustrating for some. Resumption of outright falls come Autumn 2024 as well documented headwinds further influence sentiment.

by Flying high | 11th Dec 23, 2:39pm 1702258768

Only if inflation goes wild. If not, interest rates drop, affordability improves, specuvestors will re-enter the market

by Thats All Folks | 11th Dec 23, 3:21pm 1702261317

If interests rates drop, it will be for the wrong reasons.

You’ll be wishing they hadn’t.

by spacecadet | 11th Dec 23, 5:34pm 1702269244

Exactly.

by Flying high | 11th Dec 23, 8:32pm 1702279941

Interest rates are artificially jacked up above the neutral rate. Its probably why wall st anticipates and celebrates the suspected lowering

by Pa1nter | 11th Dec 23, 2:53pm 1702259582

You heard it here folks. The broken clock will be right on it's 3rd time around.

by Retired-Poppy | 11th Dec 23, 2:55pm 1702259759

Awwww - someone's got an irritating itch they can't quite reach.

by Pa1nter | 11th Dec 23, 3:30pm 1702261858

Good to see "irritating itch" is an aspiration for you.

by Retired-Poppy | 11th Dec 23, 4:00pm 1702263617

Much like "Smart Ass" is for you :)

You're the one who loves to listen to himself talk at the Christmas BBQ - right?

by Pa1nter | 11th Dec 23, 4:09pm 1702264160

I prefer listening to talking. Gives me a wider information base. Otherwise I'd just be doing something like telling everyone non-stop about that time I bought a house freehold, 30 years ago.

by safeashouses | 11th Dec 23, 4:10pm 1702264258

@retired poppy - I am struggling to figure you out, you seem to speak for the masses however you always take it to the next level of putting people down, why is that?

by Pa1nter | 11th Dec 23, 4:17pm 1702264624

Cause he's only really speaking for himself.

Otherwise instead of tut-tutting anyone struggling with higher interest rates, he would have been shouting from the rooftops to people to lock in 5 year, low interest mortgages 18-30 months ago (assuming he'd be able to predict it, I think he was only on the "it's all gonna crash" merry-go-round).

by Retired-Poppy | 11th Dec 23, 4:19pm 1702264789

No, I don't always. Only Pa1nter and a few others warrant such treatment. Pa1nter for one is more pre-occupied with ridding the forum of the poppy than accepting I have differing opinions :)

by Pa1nter | 11th Dec 23, 4:19pm 1702264776

Or.....

And this is a wild idea

Maybe poppy could evolve into a learning animal, instead of the same old, mostly wrong schtick.

Crazier things have happened.

by Retired-Poppy | 11th Dec 23, 4:21pm 1702264893

Oh, pleeeeze, get over yourself. Is this the response/reaction you wanted from me - LOL!

Does it feel good??

by Pa1nter | 11th Dec 23, 4:51pm 1702266662

Watching someone drown in their own hubris isn't something that fills me with too much joy.

Good thing for you is you can write me off as a Meany-Mcmeanypants, without having to question whether there's a problem with how you're forming thoughts or interacting with people.

by Retired-Poppy | 11th Dec 23, 4:57pm 1702267055

Again, you really need to get over yourself - Ok

by Rhumline | 11th Dec 23, 10:07pm 1702285653

Give it a rest you two. This sort of BS has stopped many of us expressing our own (researched) views on this site.

by ChrisOfNoFame | 12th Dec 23, 8:55am 1702324519

Pompous - affectedly grand, solemn, or self-important.

Great word. Describes pub-economists and home decorators. Fits nicely. Please use it. ;-)

by safeashouses | 12th Dec 23, 6:22am 1702315370

@retired poppy, thats not true anyone aspirational (incl myself) that have a different opinion than yours get burned. Yes you have beef with painter however i feel his points are well made and so are yours however you first one to take it to the bottom. It annoys me because you seem to be the kind hearted and want everyone to get along, however someone disagree you get pointy and specific. For me that makes all your kind hearted stuff false.

by Yvil | 12th Dec 23, 2:09pm 1702343357

There's a patch that can be installed to hide comments from any posters one wants. Reading Interest has become so much more enjoyable since I cannot see Retired Poppy's comments anymore. Maybe the commenter who made the patch can re-post it on here ?

by Retired-Poppy | 12th Dec 23, 2:31pm 1702344672

Here you go :) https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/interestconz-commenter-bl/kbfa…

You're welcome.

by 1689 Baptist | 11th Dec 23, 3:24pm 1702261448

The steady inflation of construction costs gave me confidence the nominal house prices of existing stock would hit a floor before long. I predicted a 10% fall in nominal prices back in early 2022. It fell 17% so I underestimated the correction a little. Still, some on here are predicting a further 30% fall. I think that is highly improbable with new houses costing in excess of $4000/m2 now.

by Pa1nter | 11th Dec 23, 3:26pm 1702261615

There's a scenario where the prices crash, and stay crashed. Likely involving more people living on the streets mind.

by 1689 Baptist | 11th Dec 23, 3:31pm 1702261896

if we do go back to the 1930's, I hope Fedoras come back in vogue.

by Pa1nter | 11th Dec 23, 3:33pm 1702262033

For a real tiny minority, they never went out. You don't want to hang out with those guys.

by Averageman | 11th Dec 23, 5:16pm 1702268208

Don't have to look to hard to see people already living in the streets.

by DonKerrBab | 11th Dec 23, 4:26pm 1702265190

Why is it that houses cost $4000 a metre? I mean there lies the problem, it's non sensical, some of those "square metres", in fact quite a few of them, are just 100 - 150mm of concrete and then carpet. We have done a few renovations and it seems to me that when the builders use sub contractors, they charge the builders $$ + their margin then the builders charge their margin on the overall cost of the subbies work of which they didn't actually do anything. So from my untrained eye it seems like there's margins upon margins upon margins being charged out. Is that incorrect?

by peter.may | 12th Dec 23, 9:15am 1702325738

Dont know where $4000.00 comes from. We have been building for over 40 years - never close to that rate!

by 1689 Baptist | 12th Dec 23, 11:04am 1702332279

Depends how you measure but if you include everything bar land (consents etc), $4000/m2 seems pretty standard. To build a 150m2 3 bdrm home on a flat empty section costs around 600k. Or have I got that completely wrong? I looked into building last year in Milldale and this was the typical quote.

by Black and White | 11th Dec 23, 8:48pm 1702280890

Northshore 33% sales that is very poor for one of the most desirable parts of NZ and maybe the best lifestyles.

by Toye | 11th Dec 23, 2:32pm 1702258334

Waiting for the post Christmas property offload bonanza.

by IT GUY | 11th Dec 23, 2:42pm 1702258959

owner wants action, present all reasonable offers.....

by Flying high | 11th Dec 23, 2:44pm 1702259096

The Xmas clearance sales are on

by Black and White | 11th Dec 23, 8:50pm 1702281002

Wait to after Christmas and the real desperation will begin.

by Nifty1 | 11th Dec 23, 3:18pm 1702261114

The marketing tactic is getting your attention IT GUY, will you make an offer or just continue window shopping?

by Thats All Folks | 11th Dec 23, 3:22pm 1702261372

I like to call it window laughing.

by IT GUY | 11th Dec 23, 3:35pm 1702262146

Busy working on my own subdivision.... steady as she goes.

In AKL CVs have gone up so fast, not enough buyers can afford to pay CV anymore..... only those moving sideways... hence so many sellors not finding offers.

by Nifty1 | 11th Dec 23, 3:44pm 1702262686

I'll watch out for your land listing... 'owner ready to say goodbye, the section is yours to buy, BE QUICK - to live next to IT GUY'...

by 1689 Baptist | 11th Dec 23, 3:27pm 1702261639

25% of the five property's sold in Wellington were sold above their R.V.

Does anyone else see a problem with this?

by Eschaton | 11th Dec 23, 3:34pm 1702262095

Yeah, its Wellington.

by General Comment | 12th Dec 23, 7:51am 1702320704

Only 33% of the single property that sold in Hawkes Bay went over RV too. I'm thrashing my crusty high school maths knowledge to rationalise this one.

by Greg Ninness | 12th Dec 23, 10:15am 1702329305

The 25% result for Wellington is due to the fact that we were only able to match four of the properties that sold with their rating valuations and only one of those sold for more than its RV. There are inevitably a few properties that can't be matched with their RVs, usually because they are a new property that doesn't yet have an RV in the system, or the address used for the auction doesn't match up with the address in the council database. Where this happens we remove the property from the % calculation because we don't know whether it sold above or below its RV. The 33% rate in Hawke's Bay was an error and it's now been corrected.

by 1689 Baptist | 12th Dec 23, 10:06am 1702328796

Thanks Greg. 😊

by Flying high | 12th Dec 23, 8:03am 1702321433

What kind of problem

by tomjones_04 | 11th Dec 23, 3:25pm 1702261539

I occasionally read the Facebook investors page for a laugh. I think that's where the real DGM's live.... "I'm topping up".."the gummit screwed us" waawaawaa... They should enforce a minimum IQ test for entry too, the spelling is appalling.

by IT GUY | 11th Dec 23, 3:33pm 1702261988

Some of them have been sold too, sold a crock of sh*t and are now the BAG Holders!

by Zwifter | 11th Dec 23, 5:29pm 1702268984

Wouldn't even mention the IQ thing, some people on here have an eye that starts twitching when you talk about an IQ test.

by Flying high | 11th Dec 23, 11:23pm 1702290189

Can you name any lol

by Nzdan | 11th Dec 23, 9:34pm 1702283649

This one post made me crack up. $16k per year top up on a $710k property. On an interest only mortgage. LOL

"Hang in there hun, stick it out, it's for the long haul". "I was in this position 20 years ago".

by Yvil | 12th Dec 23, 2:15pm 1702343712

You know Tom, your time is better spent looking after your own affairs rather than looking after others "to have a laugh" !