The Auckland real estate agent who’s tipped to be the breakout star of the second season of the TV reality show Rich Listers has closed nine deals worth more than $10 million in the space of 24 hours, OneRoof can reveal.
Harcourts agent Aman Gulia told OneRoof that the mood of the market had shifted dramatically in just a few weeks.
Gulia said the change in activity had been sudden. “You can see the signs before it comes out in the media.
“Last year in September, when the market slowed, we were just not getting the calls. And then we realised it wasn’t just a one-off. But you didn't really see it reported in the media until November.
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“Now it’s the other way round. All of a sudden properties that had been sitting and sitting now have people calling. Now I don’t have enough [listings].”
The agent, who is currently filming the second series of the hit reality TV show that promises to lift the lid on New Zealand’s real estate market, said he had brokered a flurry of deals over a 24-hour period last week.
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The nine sales he highlighted were mostly of new-build homes in West Auckland and ranged in price from $750,000 to $1.51m, with one buyer forking out $3.775m.
The properties had been sitting on the market for some time, as long as 10 months in one or two cases, before selling “for good money”. He added that four of the nine sales were conditional.
“The prices in general haven’t gone up, but people have started to make decisions. People who we’d done appraisals [for sale] are now calling to say they’re ready to sell,” he said.
“They’ve all been waiting for the bottom of the market.”
Harcourts agent Aman Gulia: “They’ve all been waiting for the bottom of the market.” Photo / Fiona Goodall
The $3.775m sale was for three adjacent development plots totalling 2650sqm on Hilling Road, in Titirangi, (a fourth 675sqm section may also be added to the deal).
Gulia said his team had done another $12m worth of sales in the two weeks before.
“So a total of 20 contracts in two weeks for around $22m,” he said, adding that last year 60% of his sales were to developers, but that has now switched to 20%.
He said developers had struggled to sell off-the-plan projects for the last 18 months, so sales have been only of finished, ready-to-occupy units. “When they start selling off-the-plan, then that’s a clear sign that everyone is confident. We’re not there yet,” he said.
Gulia added that he had brokered a deal for a developer, who sold four stand-alone houses in west Auckland to Kāinga Ora.
“Kāinga Ora are looking for large family homes, four to five bedrooms, stand-alone with good parking. But they must be built to their standards, and not every developer is able to do that.”
Gulia said the leap in sales handled by agents in Harcourts' Mount Albert office, from an average of $25m a month to $46m in June, showed the pick-up in the market.
“Now we have more buyers than property for sale, which is saying a lot when we have over 175 listings,” he said.
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