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The lack of bidding at Barfoot & Thompson's latest auction shows buyers are becoming extremely cautious

Property
The lack of bidding at Barfoot & Thompson's latest auction shows buyers are becoming extremely cautious

It was hard going at Barfoot & Thompson's auction at the agency's head office on Friday morning (8 December).

Twenty five properties were on offer, with 21 of them located in Auckland's western suburbs plus three from the North Shore and one in Grey Lynn.

Most of those from west Auckland were located in suburbs such as Massey, Henderson, Te Atatu and Glen Eden with a couple from New Lynn and Avondale.

Traditionally, these have been considered among the more affordable parts of Auckland to live, so you would think that properties in these ares would sell readily.

But that was not to be.

By the end of the auction only seven of the 25 properties had sold, giving a clearance rate of just 28%.

Even more ominously, of the 18 properties that were passed in, only two received any bids and 16 properties (64% of the 25 on offer) received no bids at all.

Of course that does not mean the properties that were passed in will not eventually sell.

But it does show how much the market has slowed since last year, when a clearance rate above 80% would have been more likely at an auction of similar properties.

The latest auction figures also show how much of a gap is developing between the price vendors expect to achieve and the price buyers are prepared to pay.

Vendors with unrealistic expectations are becoming a major problem for the real estate industry and are causing a build up of unsold properties as we head towards the Christmas break.

The key to achieving a sale is now increasingly about the negotiations that take place after the hammer has fallen, and finding an agent with the right negoitiating skills in that situation could be crucial to having a successful outcome.

Details of all the properties offered at Friday's auction and the prices of the properties that sold, are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

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Our searchable database of auction results is here, and that includes these latest Barfoots auction results, by individual property.

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309 Comments

Even then I would agree with further pension restrictions and limits being placed so funds could be saved and allocated to make improvements. As too many people treat the benefit as a given. All to the detriment that future funding is hamstrung to the point the young generations now may never see that same protection for the poorer elderly when they grow of age. Even improving the medical services & investment with the saved funds would help future security and up the quality of care for those who need it today (being told they are too old for life saving surgery, too old for being able to live with independence). The state of our retirement housing market really needs to improve and build a lot more as well... So much debt that one generation lays onto another to get ahead even hamstringing those in their own generation.

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In order; same in just about every western economy, same in just about every western economy that didn't have a housing collapse (don't wish for one) - understand what happens when the world goes on a debt binge for a couple of decades and then implodes, rates get cut to zero, and central banks print money - consequences globally, asset prices and debt levels go through the roof as buyers and borrowers tell themselves that they can afford it.

The one thing you didn't want through that process was what happened to most other nations with NZ being one of the few who didn't - collapse of house prices and massive loss of equity for borrowers who couldn't hold on, massive unemployment etc...... if you think that this coalition would have avoided that if in power, you really are in for an awaking because it isn't over and it won't be an isolated NZ issue or the trigger for it...it will be labour's turn to prove how they manage crisis..

But for the moment, they have low interest rates, low unemployment, rising wages, and very very small public debt, and historically good terms of trade....try being Australia, the UK, USA or just about anywhere in Europe including Germany, in exchange.

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What are you on about Grant A. Neither the UK, USA or Europe have anywhere near as severe a housing affordability crisis that NZ has. And every single country/continent you mention has higher wages and pays lower prices for pretty much EVERYTHING.
Not to knock NZ, because there are things of value here that simply can't be quantified in simple monetary terms, but IMO NZ is much more precariously placed than any of these places. NZ avoided the extreme effects of the GFC because its biggest trade partners were booming.
Is that still true? Or are Australia and China now also facing a slowdown? I can assure you that China and Australia slowing down will effect NZ far more than it will effect UK, USA and Europe.

(NB I am not saying a slowdown in China won't effect elsewhere, but that it will effect NZ far more)

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I think it would be fair to say we avoided the worst of the GFC as our banks (ie the Aussie banks) had been pretty well regulated by aus and had not gourged themselves on the junk financial instruments that caused everyone else so much grief. Next time around they will be at the epicentre of the bust.

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Good grief The man... we spent months leading up to the election listening to how national would romp in (I picked they wouldn't). Now we are hearing abut how the coalition will fall at next election. Time to widen your social circles, your fb feeds, the websites you visit and your reading. Then you might understand that you are engaged in a self re-enforcing feed back loop.

National are toast for this election cycle at least. The peoples love Jacinda and the change she brings.

National need a full re-build before they have any hope at all... any economic carnage over the next 3 years will simply be attributed to 9 years of nat policy....

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To be fair, National will be in power if National had have offered Winston what he wanted like Labour did!!!

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National offered him more than Labour. What it turned out he really wanted was a coalition of parties with credibility. National couldn't compete on that basis.

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The Man 2, your level of butt hurt has truly reached epic proportions dude.

And that's understandable, the previous government, did indeed create a climate where you personally profited greatly. And the incoming government appear to be set on curtailing the wealth of the asset rich in favour of ... well... everyone else. And that's got to hurt. All that entitlement, all that smugness and suddenly, that's at risk. I feel ya. Hard times. To think that greater numbers of under 40-year olds might get on the property ladder, to think that property investment might get taxed the same as all other investments, or that students might get the same start in life that boomers got. That must smart. Nobody wants fairness when it might curtail their own further accumulation of wealth, so your recent tantrums are understandable. In fact, maybe you should throw your dummy, and all your toys out of the pram, while ranting about your wealth, and then maybe, some how, miraculously, by the sheer force of your tantrum, John Key will return, the Chinese investor will return, and your self righteous privileged, wealth gloating smugness can return?

Yeah? Nah.

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Oh I agree, that didn’t make any sense to me, they need to keep their powder dry. But that spending is a fraction of what will need to be spent if national’s time bomb really blows up. That bill would be in the multiple billions.

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