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Sales rates ranged from 33% to 54% at Bayleys' latest auctions in Auckland, Hamilton, Matamata, Tauranga and Rotorua

Property
Sales rates ranged from 33% to 54% at Bayleys' latest auctions in Auckland, Hamilton, Matamata, Tauranga and Rotorua

Bayleys Real Estate sold almost half the residential properties at their latest auctions (10-14 December) in the upper North Island.

The agency marketed 56 residential properties for sale at its auctions in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua and Matamata and sold 26 of them, giving an overall sales rate of 46%.

At the Auckland auctions where 18 properties were offered, exactly a third were sold with prices ranging from $742,500 for a two bedroom house at Muriwai Beach to $1.925 million for a two bedroom apartment in Remuera.

At the Hamilton auction 13 properties were offered ranging from houses in Hamilton to lifestyle properties in rural locales. Sales were achieved on seven of them, giving a sales rate of 54%.

Prices ranged from $537,500 for a renovated three bedroom house in Hamilton to $2.87 million for an 18.9 hectare lifestyle property at Cambridge.

The biggest auction was at Tauranga where 20 residential properties were offered and 11 were sold, with prices ranging from $530,000 for a three bedroom house at Judea, to $1.7 million for a large house on a lifestyle block at Welcome Bay.

At the Rotorua auction one of the three properties offered was sold, and in Matamata one of the two homes on offer found new owners at the auction.

Photos and details of all the properties offered at the five auctions and the selling prices achieved for most of those that sold, are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

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76 Comments

Not surprising that auction clearance rates are trending up a little at this point.......

Prices look destined to increase a bit in the New Year - so now seems a logical time to purchase.

TTP

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33% for Auckland..
[ personal insult not needed. Ed ]

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Have a Merry Xmas Bindi!

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What a sham these figures are! Listing # 2500101, Welcome Bay - Jason Eves, agent ( Good name for a Bayleys employee) is listed as "Sold!" at auction. It wasn't. It sold by negotiated agreement a week/10 days before the auction. One buyer at $1,700,000 against a 2015 CV of $1,930,000 and yet it was still ' taken to auction' and reported as sold there at. The Vendor was happy with $1.7 - deceased estate. The sole interested party and the buyer was happy. Even Jason Eves was happy, with a locked in commission. Yet it was still put to auction. Why? It makes the 'auction' stats look better! How many others on this Bayleys list suffer from the same sort of distortion?

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The figures aren't a sham at all. The property was marketed for sale by auction, received an early offer the vendor was happy with and was sold. The fact that it was sold and the selling price achieved are there for everyone to see. Would you prefer it was included with the unsold properties?

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Was it sold prior to auction day? ????

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You're missing the point.

It wasn't a successful action. Whats the headline of this article?

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The figures are a sham! (NB: Look up the meaning of the word and tell me what you think!) What does it say in the body of the article, Greg? "The biggest auction was at Tauranga where 20 residential properties were offered and 11 were sold, with prices ranging from $530,000 for a three bedroom house at Judea, to $1.7 million for a large house on a lifestyle block at Welcome Bay." That property wasn't 'sold at auction' It was sold some considerable time BEFORE AUCTION and is used to distort the Auction Results. I'll ask again "How many more are there like that in these figures?" You, of all people, will probably know. An alternative explanation is that gazumping is alive and well in New Zealand? Offers made and accepted prior to "The Auction Day!" are merely indications of interest and not sales at all. Is that what you're saying, Greg? "Get a Sale done, and still 'auction' it and get a better price on the day? Is that it? If so, I'd caution any buyer in New Zealand against making ANY bid to buy a property before Auction because it's meaningless. Is that what you want?

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Most auction contracts have a clause that says a property will be offered "unless sold prior" but even when that occurs, it's usually sold under the auction contract. We could remove the properties that were sold prior to auction so that only those that actually went under the hammer on the day were shown. But if we did that we would also have to remove those that had their auctions postponed or were withdrawn from sale prior to auction, because they didn't go under the hammer either. In all likelihood that would increase the reported sales rate. So whichever system we use, there will be compromises. While no system is perfect, this one captures as many properties that are marketed through the auction process as possible. I think people would rather know that a property was sold or was withdrawn from sale or whatever, rather than not know what happened to it. And you need to be consistent to compare results with previous events. But we will be adding some improved features to the auction results in the new year. That includes adding some extra detail that should make it a bit clearer what happened in cases like this. Thanks for all your feedback.

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"only those that actually went under the hammer on the day were shown."
That...is what an auction is! Anything else is a Negotiated Sale, no matter whether it's 10 seconds after then the property has been passed in or 10 days prior.

I'll repeat - Auction is part of the Sales Process, as is Negotiated Sale. These figures are advertised as Auction Results - if they include ANYTHING that isn't sold under the hammer ( your sentence there!) they are not "Sold at Auction' and should be excluded from said 'statistics'.

Show any Sales as a Sale somewhere, by all means, but Auction! is open cry in a public venue and infers a spirit of competition that is missing from a Negotiated Sale.

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Haha you're flipping out about this. Why? These are all unconditional auction sales and thus useful information.

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We collate properties that are "Sold' and those that are "Not Sold" for our results. Where do you think we should put the ones that are sold prior? And just as importantly, where do you think we should put the ones that are withdrawn or postponed?  All suggestions are welcome, especially those that make the information more useful to our readers.

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Not under "Sold at Auction! results. It falsifies that statistics. Sold at Auction has a very clear meaning under the Law, as does Negotiated Sale, and sticking the two together under "Sold at Auction' is misleading at best and duplicitous at worst.

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Thanks for your suggestion. Any thoughts on what we should do with the "withdrawn" or "postponed" properties?

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Based on what the perception is when one says “sold at auction,” my two cents is to remove the withdrawn or postponed properties as well as they didn’t make it to auction.
That would be the fairest and most logical reporting for me.

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Why do we need to change a format that has been used for years ? The whole idea is you don't change anything so you can reference it to Auction sales made years ago right up until today. Most houses offer unless sold prior and unless I'm wrong this is the offer that opens at the Auction and unless someone offers more its sold under the hammer at that pre-auction offer that was already accepted by the seller.

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That’s a very valid point but my estimation is the current system is susceptible to manipulation by agents. In a confidence game like property that is important. Sacrifice historical continuity for better data?

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If we are being strictly honest then its really easy.. Did the auctioneer bang the gavel and say Sold? Thats an auction sale. If the auctioneer didn't call the property on the day then it didn't go to auction for whatever reason

Postponed - they didn't go to auction, so put them in the results/calculation when/if they do finally go up to auction. add a note to the article
Withdrawn - they didn't go to auction, don't include in the results/calcs, add a note to the article that x properties were withdrawn during the period
Sold prior: If they weren't called on the auction day they didn't go to auction, if they did go to auction and sold due to a prior negotiated bid they sold. But it would be nice to note that it was a sale prior, and the price it sold for.
Sold post auction: Technically if they got passed in then a sale negotiated they didn't sell at auction. But personally I'd allow calling them an auction sale if they got it signed off on the same day.

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Cheers.

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Greg
Great site in my opinion one of the best anywhere on the net Congratulations

The term “rubbish in rubbish out” is what BW is trying to explain
If the info is inaccurate going in it upsets the %
However the overall trend is more important and not one off sales of certain properties in the leafy suburbs
Something Zach and others choose to do

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It doesn't have to sell under the hammer on the day to sell at auction. It can be before or some time after the initially set auction date. Things have a degree of flexibility and that's good. That's just the way it is. Sorry if that destroys the DGM narrative!

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WRONG! See above.

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I believe I am right. Been interested in this for quite a few years and have accepted a pre auction offer once. They didn't get to buy the house, sadly.

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So you'd be happy if you bought a property, all done and dusted, and 10 days later, you got told that "Sorry. We took it to Auction anyway, and your accepted bid wasn't high enough"?

Good luck with any non-auction buying you may do in the future...!

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But the contract you sign when you buy one of these auction properties pre-auction has a clause saying that your offer is accepted conditional to not being beaten on auction day.

You can ask for an outright unconditional sale contract if you wish, and maybe the vendor will agree if they think you're offering top dollar.. or maybe they'll tell you to come along to the auction and try your luck.

Sorry BW, but its entirely normal, has been for years in NZ real estate.

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Ok. Take that at face value.
So you place a bid, conditional on the auction going ahead; it does. ( more fool anyone who does that! Who in their right mind would place a bid; have it conditionally accepted but used as the floor price just in case no one else comes along?!) No one bids and your offer become unconditional. Did you buy At Auction or was your purchase a Negotiated Sale?
My view is that you Negotiated the Sale and you didn't buy at Auction, so it shouldn't be in the Auction! stats.

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Yeah, I agree with your logic, I can't see any reason why I would effectively tell the vendor to set your reserve to $x, cos thats what i'm willing to pay, then let them try their luck on the day. I'd rather go to the auction and take my chances on picking it up for less, and if someone is willing to pay more than I was always going to get outbid anyway.

I guess it might make sense if your offer is conditional on something and you are worried it might sell it for less than you are willing to pay to somebody that can make an auction (unconditional) offer. But then if that's the case, I agree it shouldn't be counted as an auction sale, as auction sales are supposed to unconditional.

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When a pre auction bid is accepted the auction date and time is then set a couple of days later. The agents then start furiously calling everyone who visited the open homes. Suddenly the house becomes a better buy in the sense because if you are not the bidder you now know for sure that someone wants to pay hard cold cash for the same house you are interested in. You know you will not be paying over the odds.

Making a pre auction bid does seem like putting blood in the water in shark infested seas though. But is it?

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Good point about the shortened marketing period due to a pre-auction offer, i hadn't considered that. I guess that could work in your favour if you jump on a property right at the start of the marketing process, but a bit pointless if you try it week before the scheduled Auction date.

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You are right in that where a good early offer is made, the vendor will often accept it subject to a better offer being received at auction. At the auction, the auctioneer then announces that the property has been sold subject to any higher bids being received and declares the early offer price, which effectively becomes the reserve. If no further bids are received it is sold. If higher bids are received, the early offeror can also make a bid above their original offer price. The advantage for the buyer who made the early offer is that the property can't be passed in and that excludes any higher offers that are conditional. Based on my expereince at the many auctions I've attended, I'd say that in the majority of cases where this situation occurs, there are no bids on the day and the property sells to the person who made the early offer. That implies their early offer price was a good one and the vendor was wise to accept it.

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But if you are buying unconditionally, and you have to be at the auction to potentially place a higher bid if outbid, I don't see how you've achieved anything. To prevent the property from being passed in on the day all you have to do is place the last bid at the auction, and you will be the first person they negotiate with anyway.

the only advantages (to the buyer) of pre-auction offers I can see are:
1) As Zach pointed out, the pre-auction offer gets it off the market before someone that will outbid you notices it.
2) If your pre-auction offer is conditional (Are they allowed to be?), you don't have to worry about the house selling to someone that can make an unconditional offer for less than you are willing to pay.

I guess the other advantage is that by setting a realistic pre-auction offer the auctioneer can't start calling for bids at well below reserve and working the crowd into a bidding frenzy. (Not a huge problem in the current Auckland market from what I saw)

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Greg
In a perfect world
I’m not about to list my experiences with NZ property auctions suffice to say they’re not examples of fine legality
NZ recently had a REA manager with more qualifications than the rank & file agent who was caught selling homes with house appraisal services provided by his own franchise network !
This was a agent who is a multimillion selling agent A leader in NZ RE no less
Caught on camera
The standard is pretty low in RE sales

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BW
You’re correct it was pre sold IF there was not another bid at auction but it’s just another example of what we accept as acceptable when we take the RE industries figures as gospel truth.
I feel your pain ha ha

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Correct Pragmatist, perhaps those people that have never purchased a house or haven't even been to an Auction should pull their heads in.

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bw, sorry but you just don't know what you're talking about. Learn about auctions and their contracts please. How many houses have you bought and sold at auction?

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To be fair Zach you are an amateur landlord not in RE
Of course everyone knows you can take an offer to auction & use it as the opening bid
Done all the time

The offer was an accepted offer unconditional which was merely taken to auction to see if the offer could be improved on. It was essentially sold on paper pre auction with the auction being merely a chance to take OTHER offers
Adding this SALE as an AUCTION Success sale is therefore incorrect
Another example of padding the Auction success %

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I wholeheartedly disagree with that.

You don't have to bet them on the rugby field to be the winning team, you can still count it as a win if their flight is delayed and they no-show. yeah, nah. That's just not cricket ;)

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Making a pre auction offer can be a good strategy for a buyer. It is debated but most experts say it works in the buyer's favour.

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It is quite common for auction properties to be sold prior to auction day. This is especially the case with more upmarket properties or those that are particularly desirable for one reason or another. If one potential buyer is particularly keen they make make a correspondingly good early offer. The vendor will then need weigh up whther there are likely to be any better offers in the wings that could surface on auction, or take the bird in the hand and accept the early offer. I don't think it's a case of one option always being better than another. Vendors need to make these decisions on a case by case basis depending on the circumstances of each sale. And somehow we need to accoomodate those decisions into our auction results.

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"It is quite common for auction properties to be sold prior to auction day.The vendor will then need to weigh up whether there are likely to be any better offers in the wings that could surface on auction,"

Precisely!

Early Bid is not Auction! They are completely different aspects of the Sales process, and combining the two into "Auction Results" is a sham.

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I actually think that putting in a pre-auction offer is part of the auction process. I did this just last year.

The market was hot and we had missed out on a few properties so when one came up that we really liked, we put in an offer which was accepted. But that did not mean the sale was done and property was ours. Rather, it brought the auction forward with our offer essentially the opening bid. Others had not had a chance to get themselves sorted and do due diligence so there were no other bids at auction, the hammer came down and the house was ours. From my perspective, putting in a pre-auction offer felt like making the first bid in an auction.

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I see the auction results as a sort of weather vane for the housing market. It gives one a sense of the level of interest in housing. The sales are unconditional and we generally have access to the addresses and the advertising to do some armchair analysis. So whether or not they sold just before, at or soon after is inconsequential. All sold unconditionally under auction terms and deposits paid.

It's not perfect and can, perhaps, be deceptive but it is all we have. To see the sales in real time is very useful.

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"Oh behave", bw you are upsetting too many with your directness haha

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I’m with BW
So I guess he’ll change his mind now
Sham for sure
You do not take a property to auction if you’ve already accepted the offer for purchase
However this is NZ the land of REA bids at auction without notice until a certain agency was caught

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Hooray – Auckland soars to 33% sales success.

Auction descriptions such as “appalling” now thankfully pushed to one side.

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Yep. And if that 33% has a 33% increase we get Sydneys "diabolical" 44%.

Good times for all.

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It’s more Whine than wine with Zachary
So much wasted time spent convincing us he’s so very clever
It’s funny witnessing human psychology on these blogs
I love him though even though he’s a P&T worker

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Auction results are certainly looking better and not getting worse as one would expect if we were edging toward a crash.

There appear to have been a considerable uptick in houses selling prior. By sorting for 'Auckland' and 'sold' I see in the first two page at least seven sales that had the auctions brought forward This is a very healthy sign and against all expectations here at interest.co, the market is in pretty good shape .

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Zachy boy, seems the wine plays with your rational thinking. .

Look thru the first page of Auckland auctions and see how many haven't sold. .

Sorry SPRUIKER

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Sorry, not interested in the not sold properties as we don't seem to get much useful information. I would be interested how the bidding went, whether there were any bids or what was the final bid. Usually this is information the agents are reluctant to reveal.

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All signs of a spruiker. .

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PP2F, other people are making constructive contributions to this debate. It would be nice if you could too.

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Greg I'm making a point. Too bad if you are the spruikers side

I made a point about the failure rate, which should be considered when talking about the health of the property market.

There are numerous occasions we are referred to as DGMs. . I have not seen you chastise them

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Well the point I am making is that we are seeking feedback on ways to make the auction results more useful to our readers, regardless of whether they think the market is heading up, down or sideways. Why not put your thinking cap on let us know what might work for you.

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You're wrong. My reply to ZSs thread had nothing to do with your said statement.

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Greg
I think you run a superb site which deserves wider coverage
One of the best points here is you allow colourful banter
You are to be commended for not taking the authoritarian route & allowing PP2Fall to argue his/ her case
Justice for all to see

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Greg, I don't think PP2F owns a "thinking cap" lol

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Said by the person with the stupidest comments. .

Get a life evil

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ʕʘʘʔ
[ Ѡ]
¯Ш¯

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The market is booming. Yeah right...tui. some agents get to enjoy squashed advo this xmas. A lot wont.

Lots of specuvestors on the radio the other day saying they will sell pre compultory insulation. Most claiming how unfair to spend $2-3k on insulation and will list in the last week etc before its law. Happy for $100's k in gains but wont spend anything on insulation. True colors.

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I understand the Landlords of 250,000 rentals are yet to insulate. Combine this with ring fencing and there's the potential for lots of "for sale" signs. In one way or another, procrastination will prove costly.

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Ya reckon pops? Someone has to arrange and pay for the insulation whether that be the current or the future owner of the rental. Of course we could just not insulate and give tenants notice to vacate haha

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Give tenants notice to vacate and pay all your mortgages from your own income? Bwahahahaha.

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You are missing the point again, I cant tell if its wilfully or just ignorantly ... list with bachcare!

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You hadn't mentioned bachcare in this thread.

But same response, the market can only tolerate so many short term rentals, and you can only tolerate so many weeks of properties being unoccupied.

PS: Bachcare and AirBNB are furnished rentals.. are you going to cut off your income stream by booting the tenants out, then cough up the cash to redecorate and furnish the rentals to a reasonable standard, then hope and pray you can get high enough occupancy to cover the mortgages? (c) Tui !

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Probably, and they'll never get them all done in time. Landlord here has had the insulation company round to have a look and quote, and nothing more has happened due to the installers being flat out.

I expect some sort of backdown or date extension will happen.

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Interesting bit of data from the DFA blog. Its got a post with Aussie Domain auction results that shows City, number of auctions, results reported, number sold, and clearance rate calculated from reported results. It has current week, prev week, and same week previous year.

The clearance rate is down for Melbourne from 62.9$ to 44.9% YoY. but the fact that the reported results have dropped from 92% of auctions to 59% does make you wonder if the real problem is a heck of a lot larger. Sydney reporting rate was 80% last year, now 55%, clearance rate dropped from 47.8% to 40.9%

Poor results.. don't report them?

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Collapse in sales in Sydney & Melbourne along with other parts of Australia. Witness the young couple who borrowed 6.5Mill at the tender age of 24yrsold to buy mining boom town properties which are now worth only a tenth of what they paid a few years back today Aussie banks happy to lend & later foreclosure

Auckland is indeed a unique case for a variety of reasons not the least being it is the only big city in the entire country with land restrictions both natural and man made by regulation. Yet there can be no room to wiggle out of the fact the trend is down in overall sales results lately.
Auction figures provided to the media can easily be fudged so unless you are gullible enough to accept the RE industry figures as gospel truth I’d take any figures they provide with a chuckle .
Real Estate Agents arent known for their unscrupulous honesty after all are they ?

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Who really cares whether it sold before after or under the gavel, the reality is that it sold under the auction process.
Some of you would argue about anything and pretty pointless!
You would be far better spending your time improving properties to increase your properties values so you can leverage to buy even more property!
If you do not then you will be in the same financial position you are currently in!

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Just don’t buy in Christchurch. If you do you will lose money from day one.

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So true TM2 if some people here bought a house and spent as much time renovating it as they do bashing a keyboard they would know what it takes to be successful.

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Ive both sold and bought a house thru the auction process, with Barfoots as the agent.
With the sale , we accepted an offer before the auction, but because of the terms of the auction contract/agreement., the auction was brought forward with the the open bid being the agreed price of sale.
With our purchase of a house we were highest bidder, but it was below reserve... We negotiated a price ( in the little office at the auction room ) and i was allowed 6 hrs to confirm my purchase.
I consider both occasions to be part of the "auction " process.
I think it is a little pedantic to argue that the fall of the hammer defines if a property has sold or not.
For me... the auction process of real Estate has always had a wider perspective , than say, used car auctions.. ( fall of the hammer )...
The reason for that is that it is much harder for both the buyer and seller to define the "value" of a house than it is for , say, a toyota corolla at a car auction..

just my view.

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Wow!! Awesome news!! It so great that houses are selling at thise prices! Pity I still cant afford a $800k mortgage ...let alone get $160k for the required deposit!

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Exactly! I counted myself extremely lucky when we bought our first house for 240k in Wellington in 2000. Now it is at least 240k over priced. Money is simply too cheap. This penalizes savers and promotes speculation and malinvestment. Eventually the true price of money will reset. But likely only after significant pain.

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46% success rate at auctions is considered disastrous in Australia.

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Ocelot ...you are forgetting the NZ real estate "Golden Rule" ......"we're different' !!! ......totally immune from any overseas influences, including Australia and anyway, what would they know, despite having a way higher standard of living ..... :)

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