No bids on half the homes passed in at four major Barfoot auctions last week

Property

Just over a quarter of homes were sold under the hammer at four major Barfoot auctions last week

14th Nov 16, 3:19pm by Greg Ninness

Sales clearance rates ranged from 22% to 34% at the four major Barfoot & Thompson auctions monitored by interest.co.nz last week.

The highest sales rate was achieved at the auction conducted at the Bruce Mason Centre on the North Shore, where 32 homes were auctioned and 11 were sold under the hammer, giving a clearance rate of 34%, with the remainder being passed in for sale by negotiation (see table below).

The lowest sales rate was at the Manukau auction, where 37 homes were offered for sale but only eight sold under the hammer, giving a clearance rate of 22%.

An ongoing feature of recent auctions has been the high number of homes that do not receive any bids at all before being passed in for sale by negotiation.

At the four Barfoot auctions monitored by interest.co.nz last week*, 136 homes were auctioned, of which 38 were sold under the hammer, giving an overall clearance rate of 28%.

Of the remaining 98 homes that were passed in, 54 or just over half didn't attract any bids at all.

The results for individual properties including the prices achieved for those sold under the hammer, are available on our Auctions/Sales Results page.

Venue	Auctioned	Sold	Passed in	No bids
Manukau Sports Bowl, 8 November	37	8	29	10
Shortland St CBD, 9 November	41	12	29	17
Shortland St, CBD, 10 November	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Bruce Mason Centre, North Shore, 10 Nov.	32	11	21	15
Shortland St CBD, 11 November	26	7	19	12

*These results do not include the results of Barfoot's smaller auctions, properties auctioned on site, or the results of the regular Thursday afternoon auction at Barfoot's head office on Shortland St.

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17 Comments

by Zombie ponzi | 14th Nov 16, 4:09pm 1479092982

It's noticeable that more listings in Auckland are by negotiation but it's pretty astounding there are still so many listings by auction when most are not selling. Does a failed auction give an agent a stronger position to convince the vendor they need to take a lower offer?

by Peter Watt | 15th Nov 16, 11:49am 1479163740

It is all about making a sale. With the current market the agent is in a bit of a catch 22 where the seller wants a sale, but also is caught up in the need to extract the best price possible. Once all the hype over house trading is over then auctions may return to the traditional unique style properties that may have a niche market. There are many factors at work in this over heated market, not just the sell/commision/best price etc but also we need to address the poor quality of the highrise apartments built in the 1990,s and up to today. And when you appear to make a tax free windfall from selling a property vs 3.5% less tax on deposit where will you put your surplus money?

by mvgsmf | 14th Nov 16, 4:18pm 1479093488

@zombie ponzi

I've had a few times where the agent pushes the auction, then when it doesn't sell pulls out the "market has spoken" speil and tries to close the sale with a discount on the spot after the fact...

Basic methodology of very dodgy industry practice... and I've known a few in my time.

1. Buy the listing with an inflated promise of sell price
2. Take to auction - if it sells - great - they're a genius!
3. If it doesn't then "the market has spoken" - drop your price and sell anyway as I need a commission...

by kiwimannz | 14th Nov 16, 5:14pm 1479096883

Also in auction the agent has more chance of selling by himself - the listed property so the commission is double if the listing agent, sells to buyer directly - instead of through another agent

by Odyssey | 14th Nov 16, 4:28pm 1479094126

The correct headline is there are no bids on 40% of the auction listings, it's totally dead guys.

by Zachary Smith | 14th Nov 16, 4:51pm 1479095465

I see a couple of exceptional sales there though. Large old houses on full sections in the DGZ. One last week and another the week before sold for almost a million dollars over the highest estimate on homes.co.nz.
DGZ will be pleased with those results. Overall there is very little for sale in the most desirable suburbs of Central Auckland.

by Penguin | 14th Nov 16, 5:12pm 1479096766

Still decent demand for property in the better AKL areas such as DGZ and Eastern Bays. Immigration mainly helping that. The peripheral areas definitely struggling.
Today's quake means new immigrants will continue to favour AKL.

by BadRobot | 14th Nov 16, 5:23pm 1479097434

Maybe - it may put them off New Zealand all together....

by Kakapo | 14th Nov 16, 8:34pm 1479108860

Reported today that there have been hundreds of panicky calls from spooked Chinese tour operators. This summer's tourist season looks like being something of a dud.

by Fritz | 14th Nov 16, 8:38pm 1479109126

I find the complacency around Auckland amusing, and misplaced.
Certainly, Auckland is less prone to earthquakes (although the same was said of Christchurch). But it's not immune.
The other matter is that a massive earthquake in the Coromandel/Bay of Plenty region could cause quite significant damage in Auckland.

by profile | 14th Nov 16, 8:51pm 1479109884

There was a 7.0 in Auckland 180 years ago. She'll be right.

by Triple | 14th Nov 16, 8:52pm 1479109967

The truth is that Auckland auction success rates are currently crap compared to last year.

To put this in perspective - in the middle of last year (mid winter) B&T auction rooms were consistently averaging 70-80% success under the hammer. Now they're averaging closer to 40% success under the hammer - and it's supposedly the "busy time" of year.

Those who are over-leveraged have some tough decisions to make.

by Zachary Smith | 15th Nov 16, 12:33pm 1479166391

To put this in perspective

The market cannot stay sizzling hot forever. This is all quite normal.

by Penguin | 14th Nov 16, 7:11pm 1479103870

I think 90% of the population has no issue with the heat coming out of the property market. It has been well signaled by the Govt that was what they would do.

Considering LVR's came into effect in October 2013 people have had plenty of time to get their house(s) in order. So no real sympathy for those who are over leveraged.

by Yvil | 14th Nov 16, 8:16pm 1479107814

So what would you guys do ?
Sell now before prices drop more ?
Or hold off for better times ?

by Triple | 14th Nov 16, 8:51pm 1479109869

If over leveraged - sell fast.

by Penguin | 15th Nov 16, 8:09am 1479150595

It depends on personal circumstances but as I have said before the big gains have been made and a 20% correction would be healthy all round. I don't expect a huge collapse but do expect a cooling in the markets as we have seen internationally in places such as Singapore.