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There was strong bidding at the latest Auckland apartment auctions but prices on those that sold were all below their Rating Valuations

Property
There was strong bidding at the latest Auckland apartment auctions but prices on those that sold were all below their Rating Valuations

Bidding was surprisingly strong at the latest Auckland apartment auctions, given how weak the overall market in Auckland is at the moment.

At the City Sales auction on April 10, four properties were offered and there was bidding on all of them.

Two were apartments that would be more likely to appeal to owners-occupiers, a three bedroom unit in The Mews complex opposite Basque Park in Eden Terrace, and a two bedroom unit in the Chatham building in Pitt Street.

The other two were facing remediation work of some sort, one in the Docks, which is a leasehold complex near Britomart, and the other in the Harbour City tower in Gore St.

Although there were buyers for the two more upmarket properties, both were passed in, the Eden terrace unit with a top bid of $825,000 and the Pitt St unit with a top bid of $675,000. Both units with remediation issues sold under the hammer, although they achieved knocked down prices, with the Docks unit selling for $150,000 and the Gore St unit for $260,000.

At Ray White City Apartments six units were on offer at the auction on April 11, with five attracting multiple bids and one attracting a single bid. But by the end of the auction only two had sold under the hammer.

There was particularly strong bidding for a one bedroom apartment in the Manhattan building on Albert St and for another one bedroom unit in the H47 building on Hobson St. Both sold under the hammer although at discounts to their 2017 Rating Valuations (RV). The Manhattan unit sold for $345,000 compared to its RV of $360,000, while the H47 unit sold for $499,000 compared to its RV of $540,000.

Although there was active bidding on all four of the units that were passed in, the bids on three of them were so far from their reserves that the top bids before they were passed were vendor bids placed by the auctioneer to try and lift bids up to a level that made a sale more likely.

So the overall under-the-hammer sales rate from both auctions ended up at 40%.

Details and photos of all of the properties offered at both auctions and the prices achieved on those that sold are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

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29 Comments

Early spring!

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Can't read much into this, as the numbers are small.

But, certainly, those who insist that the market is dead are misleading and deceiving others.

The so-called "imminent crash" - touted by certain people here for several years now - has failed to eventuate. Surprise, surprise......

TTP

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Or perhaps the crash was just delayed, we don't know yet. What we do know is that the Auckland market has had 8 months of steadily declining prices. Stay tuned for what happens next!

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"Can't read much into this"? Then he goes right on and reads much into it.

Anyone else feeling really, really young? I am. Happy New Year, I hope the upcoming visit from Spiro Agnew is without incident.

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Clearly those who are realistic with their prices can still get a sale. Wonder when “fongo” will hit in a big way?

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Withay, fongo won’t hit for a while yet I’d say. Most people still don’t think the market will slide much at all, and they’ll be surprised when it does. NZ is different to Australia you see, so it’ll be flat or bounce. Fongo won’t set in until the market is down well over 10%.

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Going below 5% is not news anymore as most houses selling are below RV at least in Auckland.

12 Grove Lane, Pakuranga went for 953000 with a CV of 1150000 and in other part in Te Atatu Pennisula - Renata Crescent went for 850000 with a CV of 1120000.

Saw few with CV of 1.1 and 1.2 million plus where agent is saying that anyone with budget of mid 800 to early 900 should view the house.

House price had touched 2016 price and now touching 2015 moving towards 2014...where will stop.

Market has fallen and now from here on it will be bloodbath if it continues and unfortunately, it is with speed. By July media will talk as it is now about Sydney and Melbourne.

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Renata crescent is still on the market - https://www.barfoot.co.nz/property/residential/waitakere-city/te-atatu-…. And it's in serious need of a refurb. Still a bit cheaper than I would have expected, they must really want out in a hurry.

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Sold. Add another 20000 or 30000 for do up

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Funny how $850k could be considered cheap for a 3 bed house in desperate need of renovation in an average car dependent suburb. Probably no double glazing, insulation, efficient heating, en-suite, walk in wardrobe, needs new kitchen and bathrooms, landscaping, maybe even roof, electrics and plumbing.

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You should probably try Balclutha if you expect all that in good condition on a large section for $500k.

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I don’t expect all that for $500k, but at close to a mil I would expect at something reasonably nice.
Just goes to show how stupid the housing market has become when that is considered a good deal.

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Comparing that for $850k in middling Te Atatu to what you can get for 800k in the USA's most expensive housing market, San Francisco: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/110-Edinburgh-St-San-Francisco-CA-94…

I mean...it's no Te Atatu, but San Francisco is not too bad and has some decent salaries available.

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RVs don't matter. Comparing anything to RVs is entirely misleading. You are making the incorrect assumption that the RV was right and reliable in the first place, and they almost never are. The only thing that matters is how properties track over time. Looking quickly at properties in and around Pakuranga that have sold multiple times over the past 3 years I see no clear trend, and I have found a few that buck the story you are trying to tell (as well as a few that support it).

Plenty of properties sell for more than their RV too. Does it mean anything? Nope! "But if more sell below RV than above, that's a sign" - nope! Stop doing that!

I'm not saying the market isn't weaker lately, because it is, but using RVs to do any kind of analysis or draw any sort of conclusion whatsoever is entirely incorrect.

I looked at a property last week where the RV was based on a floor area of 180 square metres. The floor area was 80 square metres. The property is not worth anything like its RV. Hardly means the market is in freefall though does it?

RVs are mass appraisals that are done quick and dirty, often based on incorrect inputs and using shady methodologies, and the sooner we can all get them out of our minds the better.

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Understand but like it or not agents do throw it to suit them. Even so called experts while doing analysis do mention about RV (so many went below RV and so many below RV - Why ?).

Besides the houses specially in Pakuranga should have gone for 1..1 million plus or 1.050 if sold earlier so it can be used as a barometer.

If RV does not matter, why even mention them while doing analysis.

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Exactly - we shouldn’t be mentioning them.

Your other point pretty much hits the nail on the head. Work out what a property would have gone for under the previous market conditions and compare to what it went for today. There’s your answer. Don’t involve RVs - as I said they are done in a quick and dirty way. I have had some exposure to the coal face of his this is done and I would never, ever rely on those figures for anything except the specific purpose they are intended for - setting rates and nothing else. Nothing.

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Demand yes but at what price.

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Today benchmark has changed. To be positive it does not matter, how many were sold under the hammer but how many properties had bidders of which if had had multiple bidders (Irrespectiv if was sold or not) is an achievement.

This in it self indicates the things to come.

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Had a partner free day so decided to go check out 3 on-site auctions (first time I've ever been to on-site auctions, had great expectations of exciting times ala "The Block") .. What a let down. All 3 had 1 bidder start the bidding, no more bidders joined in, after a round or two of back and forth to the vendors they got passed in and opened up to conditional offers. Vendors are expecting over RV, buyers aren't willing to pay that.

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Barfoots auckland residetial auction on track for a solid 24% clearance rate this week unless they really nail the weekend on site auctions.

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RVs don't matter. They are not a true reflection of a property's value and using them as a point of reference is completely misleading. Why can't we all just get this through our thick heads?

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am_fek you are certainly correct about the way the RVs are being thrown around in these threads lately. A single house selling below or above RV means very little and the sales history and the sales history of similar neighboring properties is a much more useful indicator of a property's trending value.

However I have used RVs in a fairly general way to to determine if the whole market is trending up or down by using them as a benchmark. I used to average all the RVs minus the top and bottom outliers and compare to sales figures to see if things were trending up or down as close to real time as possible which was only possible with auction results. A fairly crude way of trying to detect a trend as many RVs were so very far away from being accurate and the sales numbers were quite small. Just a bit of fun really although I was surprised how close, on average, the total sales figures were to the RV figures when the Auckland 2017 RV figures came out. It was plus or minus 3% thereabouts.

This "method" was vigorously criticized at the time of course.

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Zachary, the fact that most by way of the auction method are selling below RV suddenly means nothing does it? Prior to 2017, along with 80% clearance rates, most if not all were selling above RV and you were on here with others touting how it meant everything - lol!

Spruikers are so predictable ;-)

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Retired-Poppy, there is nothing spruikish about my comment at all, neither was there really any in my past comments. The method was simply an attempt to determine price trends in real time using averages of as many recent sales as possible. In the past the trend appeared to be upward. It was never about individual RV values.

Before 2017 nearly all houses sold above RV because, obviously, the RVs were a few years old. I would comment that on average sales were 30% above RV and a few months later they were 40% above RV, on average, indicating general price movement upwards. At that time people were stating that the market was crashing, because that is what they wanted to believe, but my "analysis" proved otherwise. I was simply seeking the truth of the matter.

Currently the indications are a drop of around 10% and I reported that.

The 80% sales rates at auctions only occurred for a very brief time during the sales mania period. Most properties in NZ are sold by negotiation and always have been. Traditionally auction has not been the preferred method of selling in NZ because it is not a particularly successful method for average properties. Auction success rates of 80% for average properties were an anomaly. This was because average punters didn't have the deposit readily available, often had their own house to sell and bridging finance was expensive and difficult to obtain.

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They are a useful starting point, but need to be adjusted to suit the condition of the house/neightbours etc. Run down house with 1980s kitchen, peeling wallpaper, take 15-20% off RV, freshly and tastefully renovated and modernised add 10%-15% to RV etc.

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RVs are always behind the market. That's why on the way up, they were always too low, and now the market's turned we're seeing more and more examples where they are too high. Come August majority will be selling below RV. The value of a home is what a buyer is willing to pay on any given day. Right now it's not just RVs that are behind the Auckland market; the stats are also behind and so is the news. The only way to see what's going on is to get out there and look at what's available, bearing in mind properties on the market now have not sold and are therefore still priced too high. It's messy out there and it won't be long before it gets really ugly. Have to say, it's impressive how the news still manage to find ways to spin things when all hell is breaking loose.

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I was told there is now a new phenomena when sellers going to auction and ended up setting a rather low reserve price. It's called FONGAB - Fear Of Not Getting A Bidder.

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I was speaking to one of my wife's friends the other day, they are selling to buy a bigger house and the B&T RE agent has talked them into going to auction at Shortland Street. I didnt have the heart to tell her to expect a 75% chance that it wont sell at auction.

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A little off topic... but I would like to hear peoples view on the correlation between the current bloodbath of the NZ farms pricing and sales vs the current commencement of the dropping of both price and demand, in residential ... possibly a reflection of people's common sense realisation that to invest in property (and property based businesses such as farming) at the current nose bleed pricing (highest in the world) is too bloody risky... a significant loss of market confidence by the masses...
Link below.
https://www.interest.co.nz/rural/resources/farm-sales

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