Barfoot & Thompson had 38% success rate at last week's auctions

Property

Residential properties in south Auckland remain the most difficult to sell at auction - results mixed elsewhere

21st Feb 17, 9:48am by Greg Ninness

Auckland's largest real estate agency, Barfoot & Thompson, marketed 172 residential properties for auction last week (to February 17) and sold 66 of them (38%) either under the hammer or by 5pm the following day.

That left 106 properties (62%) that remained unsold by 5pm the day after the auctions, although that included a very small number that were either withdrawn from sale or had their auction date postponed.

Most of those that were passed in were then marketed for sale by negotiation.

Properties in south Auckland remain the most difficult to sell. At the Pukekohe auction, nine properties were marketed for auction but only one was sold by 5pm the following day.

At Barfoot's North Shore auction 16 of the 40 properties (40%) were sold by 5pm the day after the auction.

See the chart below for the summary of results.

The prices achieved on individual properties that sold and details of those properties that didn't sell are available on our Auction/Sales Results page, along with the results of auctions conducted by Harcourts, Bayleys, Ray White City Apartments and City Sales.

**Barfoot & Thompson Auctions**
Venue	Sold*	Not sold*	Total
On site	4	14	18
Manukau Sports Bowl	5	13	18
Shortland St, CBD. 14 February	6	5	11
Mortgagee	1	0	1
Shortland St, CBD. 15 February	14	15	29
Pukekohe. 15 February	1	8	9
Shortland St, CBD. 16 February	4	4	8
North Shore. 16 February	16	24	40
Kerikeri. 16 February	1	11	12
Shortland St, CBD. 16 February	3	5	8
Shortland St, CBD. 17 February	11	7	18
Total	66	106	172
*Sold means sold under the hammer or by 5pm the following day. Not sold includes properties withdrawn from auction or postponed.

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83 Comments

by Bugger | 21st Feb 17, 9:59am 1487624363

Oh dear, it's happening. I'm hiding under my blanket.

by CJ099 | 21st Feb 17, 10:00am 1487624403

Just waiting for all those Estate Agents to pop up and try to claim that 38% is a good result, sign that the housing market is bouncing back, NOT!

by Wildcard | 21st Feb 17, 10:58am 1487627912

I miss Ted :(

by mvgsmf | 21st Feb 17, 11:23am 1487629414

Don't worry - Ted's alive at the NBR via John Predegast, Paul Cranston and his other non de plumes...

RE guys are like cockroaches. After a nuclear war they'll be selling the left-overs... "look at the huge indoor - outdoor flow, and with a half life of only 10000 years - buy now!"

by Odyssey | 21st Feb 17, 11:29am 1487629761

Ted is at Auckland airport waiting to welcome 70,000 migrants.

by Ngrrk | 21st Feb 17, 10:59am 1487627947

I can't wait to see them crying into their latte's as their late model Audi's are repossessed

by ian64 | 21st Feb 17, 1:04pm 1487635482

I like RE agents as much as my hemorrhoids, but you have to say it's not their fault. Govt allowed the most despicable kind of people to get rich fast, and that's what they did.

by mvgsmf | 21st Feb 17, 10:03am 1487624612

Wow still only 40% on the North Shore in the "Feb boom month".....interesting....

Does anyone have the clearance rate from 12 months ago to compare?

by dictator | 21st Feb 17, 10:29am 1487626183

Don't know what the clearance rate was but look at the difference in sales.

https://www.barfoot.co.nz/market-reports/2016/february/residential-sale…

If you look at the January data there's about a 30% drop in sales year to year.

https://www.barfoot.co.nz/market-reports/2017/january/residential-sales…

by mvgsmf | 21st Feb 17, 10:39am 1487626742

thanks dictator - will be very interested to see the av sell price - I think it actually may be quite high as only top end of market seems to be moving.

by Triple | 21st Feb 17, 10:41am 1487626906

Clearance rates for B&T under the hammer (i.e. not even including sales by the day following) were 70-80% in 2015, even in the middle of winter.

by ian64 | 21st Feb 17, 1:06pm 1487635589

I went to each auction in NS in 2015 and the clearance was closer to 90 on the day, probably more by 5pm next day. Some days 100% was achieved

by Houses Overpriced | 21st Feb 17, 10:14am 1487625294

come on guys, National government have to accept that they have been bullshitting the public that there is NO housing crisis and allowing SPECULATORS to run wild, exploiting young Kiwi's the chance to own their own home. Reality (Housing is severely unaffordable) has to come home to roost. Wonder if BE will concede now.

by abnz1 | 21st Feb 17, 10:48am 1487627304

National government not accepting that their is a housing crisis - are correct as are only following National party principle of Denial, Lie and Manipulation

BUT

Election not far away and people of New Zealand should give a Befitting reply to National.

Times are changing.

by Wildcard | 21st Feb 17, 11:03am 1487628218

The sad thing is if Awklund house prices stagnate or start to decrease slightly before the election, National will tell everyone that their "policies" of focusing on supply was what caused the change and made them "more affordable."

by RickStrauss | 21st Feb 17, 11:10am 1487628642

I thought Bill English is a good, honest Catholic, though. Surely he's not planning to lie to the NZ public?

by Houses Overpriced | 21st Feb 17, 11:11am 1487628700

lol

by Wildcard | 21st Feb 17, 11:15am 1487628929

A politician lying to the public?! Perish the very thought!

by ian64 | 21st Feb 17, 1:07pm 1487635651

Mafia bosses are very Catholic.

by Cowpat | 21st Feb 17, 10:15am 1487625300

The overall tone of the housing market has turned in Auckland, it is underscored by the continued flow of hard data , as confidence in this market continues to decline, lemmings will shortly greet each other at the cliff bottom

by nymad | 21st Feb 17, 10:21am 1487625669

Does anyone know what inventory levels are looking like?

by Cowpat | 21st Feb 17, 10:23am 1487625810

Trade Me listings are continuing to rise, albeit slowed in the past week. The descriptive nature of the listings has changed

by nymad | 21st Feb 17, 10:29am 1487626140

More 'motivated' vendor sort of prose?

by Triple | 21st Feb 17, 10:29am 1487626144

For the 'Auckland City' area trademe listings today are 2243. The same time last year for the 'Auckland City' area trademe listings were 1693. So listings are up 32% on last year this exact day.

by RickStrauss | 21st Feb 17, 11:12am 1487628722

Total Auckland listings are now 10,070 - last week they were about 9,080.

by Conrad | 21st Feb 17, 11:28am 1487629727

What housing crisis? In a year's time there'll be 52,000 houses for sale!

by The best statu… | 21st Feb 17, 10:28am 1487626091

A house in Greenhithe near me sold for $2.5M last week at auction by B&T. Not sure why it is not in here.

by Houses Overpriced | 21st Feb 17, 10:30am 1487626236

its probably under the 'On Site' count?

by The best statu… | 21st Feb 17, 10:46am 1487627196

Yep was on sight. 2 Chinese bidders. So with an extra income on site also half of Peking will be living in Greenhithe.

by abnz1 | 21st Feb 17, 10:50am 1487627428

We all know who the bidders are except National........

by Houses Overpriced | 21st Feb 17, 11:02am 1487628170

You're right there..... According to National, Foreign speculators had nothing to do with the sky rocketing house prices

by RickStrauss | 21st Feb 17, 11:14am 1487628862

True. I'm sorry I ever voted for National - all they've done is lie about the housing crisis.

by ian64 | 21st Feb 17, 1:09pm 1487635781

yes you should be sorry. The least you could do is buy a round of beer to all of the people like me that saw the bullshit from day 1

by tothepoint - d… | 21st Feb 17, 1:05pm 1487635508

Auckland's residential property market has always ranked as one of the most volatile in NZ. So, a correction at this point comes as no surprise. Numbers attending open homes are well down and there's much less urgency among buyers. Ten thousand Auckland properties listed on TradeMe is a bit ominous - but unless you have to sell now and bought within the last 6-8 months, you'll probably be fine. Unless interest rates rise significantly (and rapidly) and/or there's a surge in unemployment, property owners/investors probably won't stampede for the door. I prefer to avoid making predictions (especially those about the future!) but I don't dismiss the recent (independent) forecast that Auckland housing prices could weaken by around 10 per cent over the next 3-4 years. That's hardly a meltdown; it's more of a soft-landing. Nonetheless, it could be a good time to think about spreading the risk....... Inevitably, cash will return to being king. (It always does.)

by BigDaddy | 21st Feb 17, 10:39am 1487626768

Check out this Double Shot video on Interest.co website in April 2016 some 10 months aho.
You can't say you havent been warned:

http://www.interest.co.nz/property/81268/warning-bells-are-well-and-tru…

by rastus1 | 21st Feb 17, 11:00am 1487628046

Wise words and seems to be playing out exactly as suggested. Note the Sth Auck investor stats and how that predction is well underway. Hats off.

by dictator | 21st Feb 17, 11:46am 1487630807

He's been around the block and knows that property is a long game. Pretty down to earth advice in that.

by Bugger | 21st Feb 17, 11:37am 1487630234

Thanks Dad....I remember that interview.

by moneyphobe | 21st Feb 17, 10:44am 1487627084

The panic is on.
Sold for 901k in July 2016 https://www.trademe.co.nz/property/insights/address/Auckland/Glen-Eden/…
Sold on 17th Feb 2017 for 865k http://www.interest.co.nz/property/auction-results?region=-&district=-&…

that's about 5% drop in 6 months not including the Auction fees.

by dictator | 21st Feb 17, 10:53am 1487627614

Add mortgage interest and you have a good way to throw money down the drain.

by Conrad | 21st Feb 17, 11:08am 1487628532

Hey it was on the high side of the Trade Me estimate!

Someone really took a bath on that one.

by NorthernLights | 21st Feb 17, 11:50am 1487631018

How anyone could ever pay $901,000 for a house in Savoy Rd Glen Eden ?
NUTS

by Conrad | 21st Feb 17, 11:59am 1487631556

It looked just fine on Google Earth from Beijing?

by Odyssey | 21st Feb 17, 12:26pm 1487633202

Hahahahah

by dictator | 21st Feb 17, 12:02pm 1487631769

Auction fever.

by Houses Overpriced | 21st Feb 17, 12:07pm 1487632063

That's one indication of a Housing Crisis, overlooked by National as they have let the Free market rule

by Double-GZ | 21st Feb 17, 6:05pm 1487653556

#VoteForNational
The house prices are about to go bananas!

by Randomman | 21st Feb 17, 12:29pm 1487633378

No CGTax for them..

by moneyphobe | 21st Feb 17, 10:59am 1487627946

Even a pig shot out of a cannon seems to be flying until gravity takes hold . Its a long way down for house prices...

by BadRobot | 21st Feb 17, 9:40pm 1487666447

RFC 1925

(3) With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is
not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they
are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them
as they fly overhead.

by Wildcard | 21st Feb 17, 11:09am 1487628549

I find it amusing that we are in an era of historically low interest rates and rapidly increasing NZ house prices occurring during a housing crisis and there is an enormous opportunity for people to make some dosh, yet they still manage to stuff it up.

by NorthernLights | 21st Feb 17, 11:55am 1487631327

Dear Wildcard, thats because the sentiment in the market has changed
Watch as more than just sentiment changes but reality finally sets in.
Anyone who is in the property market for profit$ should have already $old
Like I told Zachary to sell his West harbour property at peak $ which he Failed to do

by dictator | 21st Feb 17, 11:56am 1487631372

I've been looking at issues around financial literacy and risky decisions that people make. It's endlessly fascinating and people have learnt nothing from history. Many are in denial as to the terrible state of their finances, or have no way to understand the position that they're in. It's even more interesting when those making terrible decisions work in banking or are accountants.

What I'm interested in seeing is how many financial disasters are really going on in Auckland. The mortgagee sale of the house with the tacky statues and the 7 property(?) holding companies linked to the address is very interesting. That one appeared to have only been propped up by falling interest rates.

by linklater01 | 21st Feb 17, 12:16pm 1487632561

Dictator,

Nothing you have said surprises me. Not long ago,I went to Kiwibank to open a PIE TD. The lady I dealt with said that in all her time at the bank,Iwas the first person to do this. I suggested that this meant that many of the better off clearly don't understand the tax system and she had to agree. What hope is there that the less well off can make the most of their Money'?

by dictator | 21st Feb 17, 12:24pm 1487633042

When PIEs were introduced it's pretty evident that they are supposed to benefit those in the highest tax brackets. So only the tax savvy and those that have accountants really make the best benefit of the tax advantage. That said dividends and kiwisaver funds do take advantage of this benefit so it's not completely lost on people. Except some people have the wrong tax rate set on their kiwisaver when on low income and pay 28% instead of one of the lower rates.

I think there are many people who are making poor choices with their money. Just look at the number of people's kiwisaver money in the terrible default funds. I've tried to get some of my friends in their 20s to make changes but they're happy with the poorly performing funds.

That said there's a real disaster looming with alterations and improvements to houses funded via credit card. It's all a matter of time before things escalate.

by bgballz | 21st Feb 17, 11:57am 1487631421

Why is everyone so alarmist on this site? You are acting like some massive crippling drop in the values of housing has already happened and its going to be the end of the world. Even if House prices drop by 10% or even 15% as it did in the last major drop, interest rates are going nowhere, the NZD will drop so our exports will start winning again, everyone that bought a first home shouldn't be too concerned because a House is a long term investment and prices will rise again. There may be a few more opportunities for new first home buyers to enter the market and a few highly leveraged property investors might get caught out with debt to equity troubles which is the risk they knowingly took on when they purchased those houses. Banks will be fine because Dairy and other exporters will benefit from any large drop in residential housing values. Either way its not doom and gloom......

by dictator | 21st Feb 17, 12:07pm 1487632032

So you're saying everything is fine?

https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6439857/20130109.0.p…

by Crazy Horse | 21st Feb 17, 12:45pm 1487634302

@bgballz ...do you have your own personal hotline to Janet Yellen, regarding the direction of interest rates ?

by bgballz | 21st Feb 17, 1:28pm 1487636911

What happens in periods of declining house prices? People pay down debt and other people will save. This will in turn decrease cost of borrowing for the banks and increase their supply of funds for distribution. Either way (If house prices stay flat or decrease) interest rates wont go up significantly.

by mja | 21st Feb 17, 2:23pm 1487640200

If the NZ property market tanks I would expect interest rates to rise irrespective of the OCR. When NZ became the darling economy of the Western world, the risk premium typically added to borrowed funds (usually 2% ) evaporated. If the Auckland/ NZ property market falls, NZ will go from being a rock star economy to a small country of 4.5 million overly dependent on a few export industries. The risk premium will be added back on. I would also expect a falling NZ dollar to lead to withdrawal of foreign funds in government bonds/ term deposit to be returned home offshore to minimise the capital loss, reducing bank capital. Additional bank capital loss due to mortgagee sales /bad debts will lead to deteriorating capital ratios, and force the need to seek more expensive funds offshore.

by tgcam4 | 21st Feb 17, 2:26pm 1487640417

Auckland already down about 7% from peak

by BigDaddy | 21st Feb 17, 12:08pm 1487632093

10 or 15% drop in prices not the end of the world??
Tell that to the first home buyers who have bought with 10% or even 20% deposit.
They will then be well and truly under water and likely facing a forced sale. .

by ian64 | 21st Feb 17, 1:16pm 1487636209

why is that? Honest question. If I bought a home to live in and can service the mortgage, what's the problem, apart from feeling extremely dumb for having bought at the peak? Am I missing something?

by bgballz | 21st Feb 17, 1:32pm 1487637125

That is kind of what I was saying above Ian (A house is a long term investment i.e. 30yr mortgage). Its not the end of the world as long as you continue to service your mortgage which I would say majority of FHBs would. People on here like to think everything will turn to custard for everyone.

by tgcam4 | 21st Feb 17, 3:47pm 1487645278

Can someone tell me what are the rules around banks forcing a sale when someone is able to service the loan, but are going in to negative equity? or where to find out about this? cheers

by tgcam4 | 21st Feb 17, 5:32pm 1487651563

as in can a bank do a margin call on property

by mja | 21st Feb 17, 7:40pm 1487659222

Bank can effectively do a margin call, if borrowed at 80% LVR, if property price falls, need to get back to an 80% LVR by paying down mortgage. This tends to be reserved for investment portfolios, owner occupiers paying there mortgage are essentially left alone.

by tgcam4 | 21st Feb 17, 9:00pm 1487664043

Cheers, I imagine the banks would want to avoid this but interesting to know they have the power to

by tothepoint - d… | 21st Feb 17, 2:54pm 1487642066

Hi bgballs, Not everyone on this site is being "alarmist". Many are being measured and realistic. (See my own post above as an example.) Auckland property market has (until a few months ago) been buoyant. Markets don't soar forever. They go in both directions. It's "buyers - bide your time" right now, because what unfolds over the next year or two just might be in buyers' favour. We'll soon see anyway...... Finally, it would be unwise to assume "interest rates are going nowhere". The banks themselves are warning that they are being forced to borrow overseas and the increased cost of this borrowing will have to be passed on to their customers. In fact, that is already happening.

by bgballz | 21st Feb 17, 1:42pm 1487637777

Hi TTP, it is refreshing to see someone not getting so much satisfaction at imagining so many people in dire straits. True overseas borrowing has caused cost of finance to increase but if demand for finance were to fall over the next 12-24 months then I cannot see interest rates increasing (Unless there is a new housing boom start up somewhere overseas). Agreed it is inevitable the Auckland market will experience some cooling at some point. If we could guess when it would occur we may well have different day jobs!

by Boatman | 21st Feb 17, 12:24pm 1487633065

Of course houses are not selling in South Auckland ............. when the median house price is such that no one aspiring to live there can even think of getting a mortgage , let alone servicing that mortgage

by user123 | 21st Feb 17, 12:30pm 1487633429

A 10 0r 15% drop from moderate prices is nothing to worry about as buyers will be close by. However, a 10 or 15% drop from crazy extreme pricing is a big worry. There won't be any buyers lining up. A 15% decline is just the start.

All markets are sentiment driven and sentiment is turning fast. As soon as everyone realises the pullbacks underway, you won't find a bid. Add to that rising interest rates and the outlook for Auckland property is not positive.

by Averageman | 21st Feb 17, 1:23pm 1487636587

Lots of downside risk with little upside remaining. No music to heard because its stopped, and the massively over leveraged have so seat, and are about to be shown to be the last fool indeed.

If I was buying, how about 2008 asking prices....?

by Upside | 21st Feb 17, 1:26pm 1487636805

If you are a speculator you could be worried, however speculators don't tend to buy up the market for everything they see because they generally can't. As prices get high the banks need to first look at equity and then affordability. In a growing market the equity is there, however as prices get higher the yield tends to drop and this is generally an affordability issue which a lot of banks won't lend on, so a mass portfolio of hugely negatively geared speculative housing is unlikely for most speculators. So the chance of these people running for the door based on 1 or 2 housing purchases is not going to happen until there is a very clear picture and a longer term trend, rather than numbers over a few months. I wonder how many secured low interest rates for 3-4 years? I wonder how many people actually bought for a long term investment?
If you are a seasoned Investor, you will understand the property cycle and would have bought based on yield and fixed your low interest rate for a number of years, so the interest rate impact in the short term will have no bearing on your repayments now and I don't believe many will be running for the door to dump their property, yield buying is different from CG purchases. If you are buying hoping property will go up then you are really speculating. These investors are probably running a positively geared position in which they are building capital to run through the bad times for a longer term investment, over say 10-20 years.
It seems there are a lot of general comments about what may happen/is happening, there seems to be a general mindset that all investors are going to be running for the door. How are we to speculate what every investors scenario is. Do we have numbers to show how many "investor" properties are negatively or positively geared? If others (first home buyer or family) have bought into the market recently I'm sure some have either, capital from a previous house sale which has given them a lower mortgage as they up sold or fixed their rate for the longer term. That being said, a big slow down may not actually occur for a few years yet when those fixed rates come up for renewal!

by Penguin | 21st Feb 17, 1:34pm 1487637250

One of the biggest issue at the moment is the developers can't get finance and so the new supply of homes that is needed in Auckland is not going to come through. So yes prices are close the a peak but I don't see a dramatic pull back....Although owning an investment property in South Auckland is something I would want to own right now.

by moneyphobe | 21st Feb 17, 2:29pm 1487640556

With banks last year falling over themselves issuing interest only mortgages to clueless mom and pop investors with the family home as collateral, a 10-20% drop in house prices means an average 600k investment property will be 50k to 100k underwater. So much for their retirement plan, but houses only ever go up they say...

by Upside | 21st Feb 17, 4:46pm 1487648807

If they are clueless they shouldn't be speculating on housing for retirement. If they are buying an investment for 10-20 years down the track then that's not bad. It will only sting them if they are forced to sell in a low market, speculation will do that.
REINZ price index figures (https://www.reinz.co.nz/residential-property-data-gallery) over 10-20 years suggests that NZ pricing is trending up long term. It does go up and down over time. Even if you allow for inflation it shows that based on these historic figures property is not a bad investment long term.

by moneyphobe | 21st Feb 17, 5:04pm 1487649854

The maximum term for a interest only loan is 5 years, good luck refinancing when its 10-20% negative equity...

by Zombie ponzi | 21st Feb 17, 5:11pm 1487650263

Almost all investor purchases in Auckland over the past few years have been speculative if you apply a strict definition (income is not enough to pay costs and interest let alone touch the principle). And that speculation has worked out very well.....for now.

No one can dispute the growth in house prices over the past 10-20 years, however, prices barely increased over the entire 20th century in real terms (except the last decade or so). My challenge to any investor/speculator is do they understand why prices have gone up over the past 10-20 years and why do they think those same factors will persist for the next 10-20 years.

by moneyphobe | 21st Feb 17, 5:33pm 1487651636

http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/statistics/c32
$64,935,000,000 interest only loans currently on the books as of December. Imagine the carnage of trying to pay this down after a big price drop and negative equity....

by Sleepydog | 22nd Feb 17, 1:17am 1487679473

Auckland listings on trade me
31-Jan 8845
03-Feb 9026
08-Feb 9451
10-Feb 9622
11-Feb 9684
16-Feb 9985
17-Feb 10041
18-Feb 10039
22-Feb 10093

by Cowpat | 22nd Feb 17, 5:16am 1487693804

Appreciated Sleepydog.

by moneyphobe | 22nd Feb 17, 1:53pm 1487724793

*update 22 Feb 10173

Residential properties in south Auckland remain the most difficult to sell at auction - results mixed elsewhere

Barfoot & Thompson Auctions

83 Comments