B&T sells a third of properties at auction

Property

A third of the homes auctioned by Barfoot & Thompson last week were sold by 5pm the following day

15th Dec 16, 9:26am by Greg Ninness

Barfoot & Thompson took 234 residential properties in Auckland and Northland to auction last week (excluding the properties offered at their specialist apartment auction, which we report on separately), and sold 77 of them either under the hammer or by the end of the day following the auction.

That gave a sales rate of 33%.

Some of the auctions had extremely large offerings, with 74 homes going under the hammer at the agency's Shortland Street auctions on December 7, with 28 (38%) of those selling.

Surprisingly, at the Shortland St auction on December 9, another 23 properties were offered but only three were sold.

At Manukau on December 6, 42 properties were offered and 15 (36%) were sold. On the North Shore 40 properties were offered and 17 (43%) were sold (refer table below).

The results for individual properties that were auctioned, including the prices achieved on the properties that sold and details of those that didn't are available on our Auction/Sales Results page.

**Results of Barfoot & Thompson Auctions - Week Ending 9 December**
Venue	Offered	Sold	Passed in	Postponed	Withdrawn
On site	21	5	8	1	7
Manukau 6 December	42	15	25	2	-
Whangarei 7 Dec	3	-	3	-	-
Shortland St CBD, 7 Dec	74	28	41	4	1
Pukekohe 7 Dec	12	3	7	-	2
North Shore 8 Dec	40	17	18	-	5
Kerikeri 8 Dec	5	1	4	-	-
Shortland St CBD, 8 Dec	14	5	7	-	2
Shortland St CBD 9 Dec	23	3	17	-	3

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33 Comments

by CJ099 | 15th Dec 16, 9:31am 1481747506

Wow only 33% of properties sold, the shockingly bad sale rate continues. Not surprising that I have Real Estate Agents contacting me no stop.

by Groen_mamba | 15th Dec 16, 9:34am 1481747642

I wonder how much of the clearance rate improvement on the shore this week (last week 18%) was because vendors are more "realistic"?

by diy-guy | 15th Dec 16, 9:40am 1481748011

Meanwhile - migrants flocking to NZ at ever increasing record numbers. Where are they living??

by two otherguys | 15th Dec 16, 9:48am 1481748527

Very good question

And nobody wants to know

The lever-pullers should want to know because it has a direct impact on how many to let in to the country at any time - raising the obvious question of whether they do know but don't want to frighten the horses by releasing the information - or is it a case they don't know and it has never occurred to them to find out

by Groen_mamba | 15th Dec 16, 9:54am 1481748865

They live under these conditions quite easily, as its still much better than where they come from.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=115…

by NissanGTR | 15th Dec 16, 7:05pm 1481781927

Auckland is turning into a third world slum

by two otherguys | 15th Dec 16, 8:05pm 1481785552

Apartment Specialist Andrew Murray said while over-crowding was illegal, it "happens all the time".

"It's common.
The most I've come across is a 48sq m two-bedroom apartment with 13 people living in it."

by NissanGTR | 15th Dec 16, 8:43pm 1481787810

13 people using 1 toilet.....

by CM | 15th Dec 16, 10:08am 1481749739

What makes you think that the people who have been buying the houses have been living in them?

by CJ099 | 15th Dec 16, 10:23am 1481750589

Yes good point and one that some of us have been trying to point out for a while now. Looking at the stats and the dramatic change in the market does very strongly indicate that 1) There were far more foreign investors out there that were previously acknowledged. 2) Due to global market changes they appear to have done a runner.

by rastus1 | 15th Dec 16, 3:29pm 1481768942

..another reason i like Morgans house tax. Motivate these empty houses to be filled up or better still, sold to our young people to renovate and raise a kiwi family. The state of our suburbs form neglected rentals is a shocker.

by PocketAces | 15th Dec 16, 7:20pm 1481782826

3 newish, fairly upmarket suburbs in Hamilton, pretty desirable when they were built, Flagstaff, Rototuna and Huntington, go take a wander around them now, all the classic signs of houses now rented rather than owner occupied. The rot has gone a long way into NZ society, but nobody is listening.
Bill D Boring is still banging on about the only solution is more houses and refusing point blank to acknowledge demand. Gee, I hope people get the wakey wakies before the next election.

by NissanGTR | 15th Dec 16, 11:38am 1481755093

So now the goal post has changed. Used to be clearance rate sold at auction. Now it includes sales in the next day too. Lol they're getting scared

by Triple | 15th Dec 16, 11:44am 1481755444

You're on the money NissanGTR.

by Crazy Horse | 15th Dec 16, 12:51pm 1481759462

Now c'mon all you good people out there ....you KNOW that this is just a "tiny blip" in the Awklund Property frieght train of ever increasing prices, based on the "lowest" interest rates in enzud history ..... not to forget the "capital gain" for the more 'astute' of you.

Now you just get back to your "Mike Hosking infused" MSM 'feel good' stories and relish the thought of your leaky, damp 3 bdm ex state house in some corner of Mt Roskill fetching $1.5 mill !!! .....by April 2017 !!

TRUE BLISS !!!

by Zachary Smith | 15th Dec 16, 3:13pm 1481768014

I went to an auction yesterday that was on site in Auckland DGZ. I was interested because I own a similar property. I was quite surprised at the turnout, about 25 people and five bidders. The property sold for 80K over the high estimate on homes.co.nz, going for 1.370M (CV 900K). So it's not like it is dead out there. This place was like an entry level house in that location and was sought after by Chinese and Indian buyers looking for a prime location property but not wanting to pay too much over a million.

by mvgsmf | 15th Dec 16, 4:40pm 1481773242

I don't think anyone is denying that "desirable" properties will keep their value (at least) - my concern for many is the absolute rubbish in "average" blue collar suburbs that has sold at crazy premium prices due to FOMO and unsophisticated speculators coming on board last and grabbing anything they could afford "because you just cant lose with property".

I'm already seeing $50-70K discounts off previous advertised price on properties in the $650-$800k bracket on AKL North Shore - Glenfield/Birkdale/Beachhaven...signs of many wanting to get out, and fast......

by Penguin | 15th Dec 16, 4:55pm 1481774122

I agree. There is good demand for higher end properties in the prime locations. The mass market investment properties in South Auckland, North Shore etc have probably already dropped 10% in value.

by Cowpat | 15th Dec 16, 5:07pm 1481774869

Where does this idea emanate from that 'desirable' properties will hold their value . Is there no debt attached to these properties?

by Penguin | 15th Dec 16, 6:31pm 1481779881

There are plenty of cash buyers from overseas looking for primary residences in the better areas.

by Cowpat | 15th Dec 16, 6:54pm 1481781263

There are plenty of sellers in the better areas waiting for offshore cash buyers. Source any property spruiiking media outlet.

by CJ099 | 16th Dec 16, 9:43am 1481834627

Well the off shore cash buyers have dropped quite dramatically, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing such bad auction results and a huge market switch. It's about time too, time to give FTB's a fighting chance. I would still advise holding off for a few more months wait for property prices to really drop.

by tagrossbilly | 16th Dec 16, 12:28am 1481801287

i agree with cowpat! why should 'desirable' properties serenely detach from the market like they are part of a kingdom above the cloudline? where has this ever happened? it certainly didn't happen in los angeles post 2008 while we lived there. it seemed the high end properties came down more. business owners who had more than one source of debt looked to or were forced to sell. suddenly everyone needed cash and no-one wanted debt that didn't work for you. those with expensive, debt funded, remodels - and the better the address the more expensive the remodel (sounds alot like all white, spic and span extended villas with landscaped gardens in central auckland, huh?) suddenly found they were massively overcapitalized. upshot was by 2010 you were really beginning to see whose wealth was all front and who had the genuine means to hold on - if they wanted to hold on, that is. and those at the top had taken more risks, had taken on more debt, had swallowed the mantra that you had to look successful to be successful, they were the ones with the higher end properties that hurt big time.

by Zachary Smith | 16th Dec 16, 7:17am 1481825843

a kingdom above the cloudline

Nice imagery, sounds like Elysium...

My theory is that the highly desirable areas didn't actually go up as much as the outer areas. The prices are sustained by very high household incomes and supply remains very low. The houses are not generally bought as rentals. Most of the houses are not over the top luxury houses but just good solid houses in leafy central areas that have been desirable for as long as I can remember.
The auction I went to that I described above seemed to confirm my theory. I think the changing demographics may be a factor too.

by NorthernLights | 15th Dec 16, 5:19pm 1481775573

Of course the whole point for Zachary was to tell us DGZ & over a million !
Hilarious reading his twaddle

by Sluggy | 15th Dec 16, 4:48pm 1481773722

NZ residents ?

by Zachary Smith | 15th Dec 16, 6:58pm 1481781496

I think so, mostly, perhaps one was one of those "students". The others looked to me like the types that might own a small business like a shop or superette.

by Double-GZ | 15th Dec 16, 7:47pm 1481784422

DGZ wow #GoodBuy :-P

by PaulO | 15th Dec 16, 9:58pm 1481792295

Was at the Barfoot auction on the Shore this afternoon. It was much quieter than it was just a few months ago and there was a definite change in the mix of people present. I didn't stay until the end but 3 of 13 properties that were offered while I was there sold, the other 10 passed in. The 3 that sold were at the lower end of the North Shore market, selling at $761,000, $855,000 and $845,000.

by NissanGTR | 15th Dec 16, 5:06pm 1481774811

lol 845k is now low end money, that's 10x household incomes in AKL!

insanity.

by Zachary Smith | 16th Dec 16, 7:28am 1481826499

TradeMe Auckland listings now down to 8744. That's a drop of over 250 in a few days. I know it is the holiday season but it would be interesting to know how many sold and how many were taken off the market. Does anyone know, on average, how many houses sell a week in Auckland? My guess is around 1300.

by Biologist | 16th Dec 16, 7:40am 1481827209

You would have to be pretty desperate or stupid to put your house on the market a week before Xmas. Unless it was outside Auckland in some popular holiday destination.

by sharetrader | 16th Dec 16, 8:08am 1481828897

a lot of families sell and move to be ready for new schools during the xmas break, agree not a good time to sell when you have a lot of buyers on holiday