It appears that properties are now slower to sell in Auckland's central suburbs such as Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, Remuera, Glendowie and St Heliers

Yvil's getting nervous. A slump in "Leafy Suburbs" sales was predicted by many here (including me). Note the steadily increasing Auckland listings? 14,384!

What comes next? FALLING PRICES.

They aren't willing to set a low reserve at Auction.. its only after the auction fails that they stick a price on it and hope to reel someone in.. Then a few weeks later the asking price gets lowered.

eg: 257A Main Highway Ellerslie, failed to sell at Auction on 7th Feb, so they tried again with an auction on 28th Feb, Whoops, that missed too. Asking price of $1.65m, knocked down to $1.595m, and just dropped it again to $1.555m.

257B sold, but 257C also still on the market. Not sure if same seller or not, but same agent.

I remember a few times buying things on clearance at the warehouse only to find multiple clearance pricing stickers under the top one. It didn’t sell for $4.99 so they lowered the price to $2.99, it didn’t sell so the lowered to $.99 and it was sold. Be patient Yvil, that’s how markets work.

Yvil .........your words ...." simply means that buyers are not willing to pay the asking price" ....I will say my mantra again ...a house is only worth the amount that someone is prepared to pay for it ...no amount of "wishful thinking"on your part and those of your ilk are going to change that.

If market forces were balanced we wouldn't see increasing stock and falling sales. If it was a lack of supply it makes no sense there are so many properties that aren't selling.

What people are willing to pay for a property is now lower than what people want to sell the property for, hence low sales. The only question left is who blinks first.

Property market bubbles do take longer to play out that stock market bubbles for sure, but just because it’s been flat or trending down slightly doesn’t mean it won’t play out like that classic graph. It certainly has on the way up. We’re certainly past the peak.
Bubbles are fascinating, and can be taken advantage of but also difficult to time. I think there’s another mini-bubble playing out with Canadian Cannabis stocks at the moment (and no doubt other places when legislation passes). Stocks are moving on news and ignoring fundamentals - psychology rather than financials.

yes and they purchased a lot lower so can still make decent $$$ even if they sell 10-20% lower then here, not forced sellers , still making good $

I wonder if thats in the St Kents promotional brochure.

That photo was in the Herald I think I had a close look at that because my friends kids go to St Kents and I wanted to hassle him about the photo and St Kents can only win rugby by poaching other players. His kids is in it, funny.

The child in photo is quite naughty but the other child is really nice, it depends on the kids as well, but if you have an attitude like some on here, then private schools will only bring out the worst. I think that's why in the ABs no matter how successful players are, they are brought up in teams where the collective is bigger then the individual. So most are down to earth, and love being like normal kiwis. Rugby in general is great, it is a very down to earth environment, that is really inclusive.

Yes Auckland has changed so much in the last 20 years. Not many people seem to take pride in their property any more.

Its a shame

Some potential scenarios for your consideration:

1) If the house owners have borrowed against the rise in house price to buy a portfolio of investment properties for their retirement, using equity release and deposit recycling financing techniques. Especially if they kept maximising their borrowing to maximum allowable LVR's (of 70% until August 2016) and borrowing on interest only terms, and buying properties in Auckland at peak prices. Some of these portfolios could be cashflow negative on interest only, especially if the purchase was 100% financed by debt. These property owners going from IO to P&I could face significant increases in debt payments.

2) some of the above category will meet the cashflow shortfalls from their household incomes. This will enable them to maintain their debt service payments, even if the investment property portfolio is cashflow negative. If the combined household income falls for some reason - such as one income earner from the household experiencing a decreased wage or a loss of employment if there is a recession, or an sudden and unexpected death in the family, or a relationship breakup, etc.

I recall going on an introductory visit to one of the property mentor programmes in July 2016 to investigate what these property mentors were teaching potential students. Some of the other potential students were house owners with equity where they were encouraged to borrow against their home and use the proceeds to purchase investment property.

TTP, sure, “cheap” will be relative to the suburb. 30% down from $2m is still expensive for most people. The gentrification in those suburbs will not go away. There will be cheap houses again in many areas though as prices decline, especially if we follow Australia’s level of decline, which seems very likely. The the return of the under $500k average house.

There are 67 properties for sale in Grey Lynn on Trademe right now. According to stats NZ there are 1338 dwellings in the area so 5% for sale (ponsonby is at 1.15%), hardly a small number I would of thought.
I know a few RE agents in this area, times are tough in the 1m+ zone.

Hi TTP too true, the GFC happened and i remember the rest of Auckland taking a hit, while my neighbours just sat it out. Too many good reasons to live in this area, and you are right Freemans Bay is as good or better as my home town.

Well spoken, Grey Lynn Gangster. You're right on the money!

As much as I'd like to become a neighbour of yours, I'm realistic enough to know there's zero chance of that happening - because Grey Lynn prices are destined to remain rock solid.

Enjoy your home! It's a fantastic investment, offering you a great lifestyle. (The rest of us can only remain envious.)

TTP

GLG, you mean Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, Kingsland etc *used to be* full of artists and musicisans, before it got very gentrified. There might be some (older, wealthier ones) but artistic folks tend to gravitate to suburbs that are cheap not yet gentrified, but then get that way because it becomes known as a creative area. Difficult to find cheap suburbs in Auckland at the moment, but plenty are not gentrified yet. Artists and musicians tend to live further west these days I think you'll find.

Musicians, artists and students.

The only Musicians able to afford it are American musicians, as the ones on their bones of their arse are no where near there, as for the artists these guys will be dead once their paintings are of value to afford Grey Lynn, and the students only if they are related to John Key and daddy is helping them out. Grey Lynn is full of Bankers and Business people now. Nothing wrong with that, but the eclecticism has well and truly gone. The only guys there now will be comparing the Pinot with their Merlot. Not to mention which kids goes to the best schools.

If you want to have a cultural place you have to move from Auckland. Even places like Waiheke has lost its Charm. Still some real NZ places around but Grey Lynn isn't one of them.

I like Grey Lynn though, my friends are there, they certainly are not artistic. Maybe creative with numbers.