Auction activity starting to slow but more are selling under the hammer

Property / news

Auction activity slowing as the market heads towards its last gasp before the Christmas break

14th Dec 24, 10:38am by Greg Ninness

Auction activity has begun to drop away a bit as we head towards the Christmas break, but the sales rate improved at the latest auctions and more properties fetched prices equal to or above their rating valuation.

Interest.co.nz monitored the auctions of 431 residential properties around the country over the week of 7-13 December, down from about 500 in each of the previous three weeks.

However, that was still quite busy considering it is so close to Christmas. Next week's Orders of Sale suggest it will be busy too.

While fewer properties were on offer at the latest auctions, more of them were selling, with 175 selling under the hammer, giving an overall sales rate of 41%, the highest it has been in the last three months.

Prices appeared a bit firmer too, with 46% of sales achieving or surpassing their rating valuation, also the highest it has been in the last three months.

Perhaps the looming Christmas/new year break, when the market all but shuts down for several weeks, pushed more vendors and buyers to commit to a sale.

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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49 Comments

by Harvey W | 14th Dec 24, 10:49am 1734126580

Up 10% in 2025 (like 2024 was going to, but it kinda got postponed)

by Thats All Folks | 14th Dec 24, 1:34pm 1734136440

Just like every year since 2021….

Wild assertions with nothing to back it up.

i think you meant -10%, but will show mercy to an unarmed participant / spruiker.

by CN - new | 14th Dec 24, 6:43pm 1734155034

"Wild assertions with nothing to back it up."

This is very common.

Sometimes even the reasoning can be incorrect and flawed. Remember these lines of reasoning?

1) Tony Alexander - 19 reasons why there's no crash - December 2021

https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_…

2) Catherine Masters - July 2022

Why the New Zealand housing market is nowhere near crash point

https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/why-the-new-zealand-housing-market-is-no…

3) Ashley Church - April 2022

Four reasons the housing market won't crash

https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/ashley-church-four-reasons-the-housing-m…

4) Kelvin Davidson - Dec 2021

“But will prices actually fall? I’m not convinced because in the past a serious housing downturn has come with a recession, but no one is suggesting that and unemployment is low at 3.4 per cent.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/real-estate/127305870/what-lie…

5) Nov 2021 - Here's why it might be fruitless to pin your hopes on a house price crash

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300449314/heres-why-it-might-be-fruitl…

by streetwise | 15th Dec 24, 8:59pm 1734249592

I know the real reason the market is picking up and it is picking up because I am noticing a lot more "SOLD" stickers on the street for sale signs to the immediate south of Epsom and in Epsom itself as well as Mt Eden.

And I am more acutely aware of the reason than probably most other posters on this site because I am coming up 77 years-old in January..

Anybody guessed yet?

I belong to that demographic called the baby-boomers that more than any one else has reaped the vituperation on this site of the younger generations for keeping house-prices beyond reach.

Well, those long-suffering younger FHBs will be glad to know that slowly but increasingly the baby-boomers are beginning to 'fall off the perch" so to speak. I have already lost several friends, acquaintances, and friends of acquaintances and several more have recently acquired some devastating illnesses. Some have sold their houses and gone into retirement villages or even rest homes. I would say that the trend started coincidently around the time of Covid although I wouldn't call it a case of post hoc ergo propter hoc...none of them died of Covid. But the pace has definitely picked up this year. I estimate that over half those cases have involved the subsequent selling of a home. It's inevitable that from now on more and more houses owned by baby-boomers will be coming onto the market.

However, I do also recognize that my disappearing demographic has been at least partly filled by immigrants and a lot of the more educated ones can afford to buy houses. So, once this is realized by the FHBs then I expect that these columns will start blaming immigrants for keeping house-prices high.

by kiwimummma | 17th Dec 24, 9:52am 1734382354

I'm sorry to hear about your friends. Perhaps your statement "the trend started coincidently around the time of Covid" should be edited to say " the trend started coincidently around the time of Covid jabs".....

by Mypointis | 14th Dec 24, 11:15am 1734128129

The number of houses for sale on trade me has dropped by about 80 in the last few weeks and seeing a big bump in the number as "sold" on homes. Plenty of activity. (Whangarei area)

by IT GUY | 14th Dec 24, 1:00pm 1734134415

define you definition of BIG

is it like when you catch a fish

by Smudge02 | 14th Dec 24, 2:35pm 1734140153

Exactly like fishing......"It was THIS big".

by Mypointis | 14th Dec 24, 1:15pm 1734135334

FYI if you must have a definition, on my small mapped area of Whangarei central on Homes there are 58 listed as sold so far this month. Many months preceding it was lucky to get to 40 for the month, so considering it looks like nearly 50% more than average, I would call that a bump. What would you call it?

by Zwifter | 14th Dec 24, 2:14pm 1734138859

Property spruiking of course. All those SOLD signs out about the place must be fake.

by CN - new | 14th Dec 24, 2:58pm 1734141498

"on my small mapped area of Whangarei central on Homes there are 58 listed as sold so far this month"

Is that a total of 58 sales over the last 12 months in that area?

by Mypointis | 14th Dec 24, 6:13pm 1734153226

For the month of December so far.

by CN - new | 14th Dec 24, 6:52pm 1734155567

FYI,

1) REINZ reported 138 sales in the Whangarei district for October 2024. (i.e one month)

2) Realestate.co.nz reported 11 sales in Whangarei Central for the last 12 months

https://www.realestate.co.nz/insights/northland/whangarei/whangarei-cen…

by Mypointis | 14th Dec 24, 8:41pm 1734162074

You don't get it. I have selected an area in Whangarei and watch the sales is this "user" selected area which is not the greater district, just the area I am interested in. You can do this on the homes website.

by Retired-Poppy | 15th Dec 24, 7:42am 1734201762

Another one of your echo world fantasies exposed...

Now you back that bus up - beep-beep-beep

by Chaosinflesh | 14th Dec 24, 8:15pm 1734160518

If by "small mapped area of Whangarei central" you mean the whole of Whangarei then yes that's roughly what I'm seeing on homes.

Spruikers gonna spruik.

by Toye | 14th Dec 24, 6:44pm 1734155052

Congratulations, you've discovered Christmas, where stock falls before it rebounds in February.

by Zwifter | 14th Dec 24, 12:55pm 1734134104

Isn't the HPI due out this week ? Its going to be a busy February, everything is selling down here, even a big block of land just sold in our street. The expectations are for a Feb OCR cut and an improving market for 2025. Total stock for sale is dropping its already back to normal levels.

by Mypointis | 14th Dec 24, 1:23pm 1734135812

What part of NZ are you located?

by Zwifter | 14th Dec 24, 2:15pm 1734138917

Tauranga. I suspect the market is picking up all over.

by NZGecko | 14th Dec 24, 2:35pm 1734140100

When the market is in an "itsy bitsy gully".....stating the obvious - every direction must be up?? Or is it the bump before the killer bluff?

"The sellers are really motivated"......

(1991) The Big Short (2015) - FrontPoint Partners' investigation in Florida & first trade [HD 1080p] - YouTube

by LapisLazuli5297 | 15th Dec 24, 11:37am 1734215857

Still love that film.

by Pa1nter | 15th Dec 24, 12:27pm 1734218871

It's inspired a whole generation to think they can crack the code of how and when the economy will shit the bed.

by Toye | 14th Dec 24, 6:44pm 1734155090

I suspect you don't know anything.

by Mypointis | 14th Dec 24, 8:51pm 1734162669

It appears to be though some don't want to admit it.

by Pa1nter | 15th Dec 24, 11:27am 1734215250

I suspect the market is picking up all over.

I'd say it's fragmented, depending on the population growth or decrease of the area, and the state of it's local economy.

The timing in our main centres usually varies from everywhere else.

by John Mendel | 14th Dec 24, 8:29pm 1734161344

North shore houses 50% of total sales above RV for a couple of weeks now, we might see a 10-20% increase next year after a big OCR cut

by NZGecko | 15th Dec 24, 6:21am 1734196873

Love the humour there, JM.

This call, like your many others, will be dripping with embarrassment egg, come later on 2025.

The current mantra out there is: "try to hold the fix till 2026"

This housing market requires 3.5% mortgage rates ...... just to stay steady and tread water.

by IT GUY | 15th Dec 24, 12:30am 1734175827

once the new CVs are out you will see more over CV sales, as the CVs will be lowered, except CHCH and Riverhead....

by Toye | 15th Dec 24, 9:07am 1734206836

I was at a bunch of open homes at the supposedly hot North Shore yesterday. Most houses only had 1 or 2 parties through. Its dead.

May your wishful thinking continue.

by Zwifter | 15th Dec 24, 9:25am 1734207957

Oh so you are looking at buying a house all of a sudden ?

by Toye | 15th Dec 24, 9:38am 1734208697

Oh how suprising for you to assume I've never bought a house before.

Like anybody with half an ounce of intelligence in property, its important to test the temperature of the water every so often.

The water is still freezing and the uninformed are still sitting in the bath screaming that it will heat up any time now as they head towards hyperthermia and inevitable financial death.

Maybe its time to get out before you get sick Zwifter?

by Zwifter | 15th Dec 24, 10:23am 1734211396

You kind of struck me as a bit of a tire kicker.

by Toye | 15th Dec 24, 10:26am 1734211574

You kind of struck me as somebody who is desperately overleveraged.

Assumptions are free, just like dreams.

by Tui12 | 15th Dec 24, 10:43am 1734212599

So instead of going to the beach, a winery a nice bush walk etc. you spend your free time going to open homes to merely “test the temperature of the water” lol. And how many posts have you made on this topic here I sense a lot of frustration.

by Toye | 15th Dec 24, 10:52am 1734213167

Some of us choose to stay well informed.

Some of us spout crap on here without any basis.

Different strokes for different folks.

by Pa1nter | 15th Dec 24, 11:29am 1734215373

So you're "testing the waters".

And theres no super good deals you've found from all these houses with no one viewing them.

Interdesting

by Toye | 15th Dec 24, 11:45am 1734216321

Yeah, vendors are still coming back down to earth, buyers are not interested.

Not too long. The new CVs in February should ground both vendors and buyers.

by Mypointis | 15th Dec 24, 12:13pm 1734217999

Already got the new RVs and surprisingly higher than I thought. Only 2 down but by less than 4%

by Toye | 15th Dec 24, 4:37pm 1734233868

Yeah and what CV are those properties? $2, $3m?

Because the fact of the matter is the bulk of the properties purchased are in the 600k - 1.2m range and those properties are likely to have relatively considerable adjustments (10 - 25%).

by Pa1nter | 15th Dec 24, 12:32pm 1734219130

Many properties that are distressed or needing significant work have a good discount.

Something turnkey, not so much.

Something significant needs to change to increase sellers motivations to a decent degree, and there's already changes that remove that motivation.

by Pa1nter | 15th Dec 24, 11:32am 1734215530

It's as funny as the posters who will make posts equivalent to "property investors are scum/stupid, check out this comment from one of the various property investors chats I choose to frequent".

by Toye | 15th Dec 24, 11:47am 1734216460

There is a dumb investor for every smart one. The bifurcation is very clear in the comment section here.

In saying so being morally broke is not a prerequisite to being in either category.

by Pa1nter | 15th Dec 24, 12:29pm 1734218977

There's morally broke people everywhere you want to look.

by Tui12 | 15th Dec 24, 10:45am 1734212718

Thats funny what area? We just had another sold on our street for well above CV.

by Toye | 15th Dec 24, 10:51am 1734213095

Hillcrest, Birkdale, Glenfield, Sunnynook. First home buyer territory in the North Shore where the bulk of houses tend to sell.

Congratulations on your neighbours sale above CV? What suburb?

by Tui12 | 15th Dec 24, 12:33pm 1734219235

Mairangi Bay.

by Zwifter | 15th Dec 24, 1:08pm 1734221319

Expensive area. My Father used to live there, had the cheapest house in the most expensive area, it was an easy sell.

by Toye | 15th Dec 24, 3:51pm 1734231100

Yeah that is not a typical average area of Auckland and won't be affected by interest rates/economic conditions as much so it doesn't suprise me.