The real estate industry in South Auckland is likely to keep pumping in the lead up to Christmas, as buyers and sellers try to get ahead of harsher market conditions in 2023.
Tom Rawson, co-owner of Ray White offices across South Auckland, said his offices were braced for a huge pre-holiday period, with 20 auctions slated for this week and another 23 for the first week of December. “Our average is 12-ish per week. Last year, on December 21, we had 33 scheduled auctions, and we already have bookings for December 13 and December 20 this year," he said.
“Unlike last year, when people said ‘ah no, the Christmas tree is up, let’s leave it until next year’, people don't think that next year will be better than this 2022.
“Yesterday we listed a lifestyle property in Clevedon for between $1.3m and $1.4m. It will be auctioned December 20. That’s not something we’d normally sell at this time of year. It would normally be pushed to next year. But people want to go now.”
Start your property search
Rawson said that the company was planning a big auction day for January 31 instead of waiting for the normal post-Waitangi start. “We’ll start advertising ‘coming soon’ properties on December 28, start viewings on January 14 which is when all the lawyers are back. We want to capture eyeballs over Christmas, people are feeling the market will be harder next year.”
Rawson said recent sellers were moving out of Auckland, some even returning overseas, and are prepared to take what cash buyers at auctions think is the market price, often around the $700,000 to $800,000 range.
“They’ll take the ‘that will work’ sum to move on, saying ‘we’re out of here, see you later’.”
Ray White business owner Tom Rawson: “They’ll take the ‘that will work’ sum to move on, saying ‘we’re out of here, see you later’.” Photo / Fiona Goodall
Bayleys agent Lorraine Young expects a rush of quality properties to hit the market in early January. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Agents in some of the city's wealthier suburbs noted that buyers and sellers would be out in force in January.
Ray White Mount Eden agent Robyn Ellson told OneRoof that many of her clients would be ready to buy early in the new year. “They’re usually time poor, they don’t disappear out of Auckland and they’re very focused. Some have maybe returned from overseas; they’ve got plenty of money and they want to buy. Last year I sold four houses before everyone else was back at work.”
She said fully renovated places were selling “in a New York minute”, such as a four-bedroom villa on Burnley Terrace, in Mount Eden, which recently fetched $3.5 million, and an architect-designed home on Bellwood Avenue, in the same suburb, which was snapped up for $3.3m.
“The fastest moving bracket is that $3m to $5m, where you can get a pretty nice house. It’s a bit harder and takes a little longer for houses in the $1.5m to $2m, where people don’t have the same equity.”
Bayleys agent Lorraine Young anticipating a new catalogue of quality properties to hit the market early next year. “I think there’ll be more influx of stock earlier in January, earlier than in other years. People will want to get the best they can, early,” she said.
“I think that in the $4m to $5m-plus range there will be some really good properties, more than previous years. People in that 50 to 70 age group still have to make lifestyle choices, to downsize from a larger home.”
A four-bedroom villa on Burnley Terrace, Mount Eden, sold for a street record of $3.5m. Photo / Supplied
A four-bedroom house on a 1212sqm site on Mount Saint John Avenue in Epsom sold for $5.9m, a street record, after multiple offers. Photo / Supplied
Young pointed to the August sale of a villa on Mount Saint John Avenue, in Epsom, which had multiple offers before selling for $5.9m, a street record, and another villa in Mount Eden, which fetched close to $4m. Both were sold by downsizers to up-sizing families.
“I’m selling one property a week at the moment,” she said, adding that she was busy with appraisals for vendors planning to sell soon. Demand was highest for large four-bedroom family homes in double grammar zone, well-renovated in the current style on a full site with a pool, as buyers turn away from places that need renovation.
UP Real Estate co-owner Barry Thom, whose agency operates at the top end of the market, said his agents were not sensing any panic from buyers or sellers, noting that vendors understood 2022’s market was not the same as last year's.
“Sellers were holding on to last year’s prices, but now they’re under the impression that things are different. They don’t change their minds earlier, but once they do, it’s all about meeting the market – asking ‘do I have enough reason to meet the market?’ People still have to move.”
However, Bayleys agent Blair Haddow told OneRoof that his Herne Bay-Ponsonby market would be following the traditional holiday pattern – stopping in mid-December and not coming back until after Waitangi weekend.
