January is usually a busy month for real estate agencies as vendors start listing their properties for sale and agents start preparing the marketing plans and getting them underway. They do so with the aim of selling the properties over February and March, usually the busiest months of the year for residential real estate.
The auction rooms by contrast, remain relatively quiet in January. That's usually because the extended Christmas/New Year break reduces the pool of prospective buyers and the timeframes for marketing campaigns are usually condensed.
However, the last couple of weeks in January also provide an opportunity to present a property while there is little new stock on the market to compete for potential buyers' attention.
Over the last week (18-24 January), interest.co.nz monitored to the auctions of 37 residential properties, mostly in Auckland with a few scattered around the rest of the country.
That's just a drop in the bucket compared to the 500 or so that were being auctioned every week just before the Christmas break.
But going ahead with an early auction seems to have worked well for many vendors who took the early plunge, with 17 of the auctioned properties selling under the hammer, giving an overall sales rate of 46%.
That compares very well with the sales rates at the end of last year, which ranged between 35% and 41% in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
However, the latest results also suggest buyers remain extremely cautious on price.
Of the 17 properties that sold, only one achieved a price above its rating valuation, one sold for the same amount as its rating valuation, 12 sold for less than their rating valuation, and we were unable to match selling prices with rating valuations on the remaining three properties.
But let's not read too much into these early results.
The numbers are so small they provide just a peek of what the market might hold for us this year.
We will probably have to wait at least another two-to-three weeks before we get a good look at how things are shaping up.
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