OneRoof’s top listings agents report the year has been challenging but one to relish because in a tough market they get to put their skills to work.
While some of the names at the top are familiar, the noticeable change is a meteoric rise of agents who had been sitting on 30 or 40 listings in the previous 12-month period who this time listed sometimes well over 100 properties.
Many were marketing a flood of townhouses which have hit the market, especially in Auckland where hard-pressed developers have been keen to get rid of stock – 19 agents were new to the top 60, most of them in Auckland.
The OneRoof data tells the story of a rush to sell at the start of the year which ended what felt like a year-long listings drought for many agents.
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New listings for the first four months of 2024 were up 31% on the first four months of 2023 (although still 5% below the 20-year average). It was enough to give the market a boost – albeit a temporary one.
OneRoof analysed the 12 months to July 31 to ascertain the country’s top listings agents, a period which covers more than 117,000 residential listings.
Overall, the average number of listings per agent was 11, down from 14 in the previous rankings – but the average search price per listing was just over $1 million, up 25%.
Just over 10% of the 10,699 active agents had only one listing, down from 1246 in the previous 12-month period, while 585 agents managed to list 50 or more properties, up 49% on the previous period.
Seventy-eight salespeople – 0.7% of the total working in New Zealand – managed to sign up 100 or more listings over the 12-month period, almost double the number in the previous 12 months. Of those, 10 managed to list more than 200 properties.
The super-listers were also reaping big rewards for their efforts. The total value of the stock brought to market by the top 60 listing agents was $9.3 billion – more than $1bn above the previous tally.
The number one agent by volume of listings has not changed. Cameron Bailey, of Harcourts Gold in Christchurch, listed just over $365m worth of real estate in the 12-month period – up 21% on the previous period. His 263 listings had an average search price of $1.39m.
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Scott McGoun, from Bayleys Wanaka, listed fewer properties (126), but his average search price topped the tables at $1.925m.
While the OneRoof rankings didn’t take into account sales and sales prices – only listings volumes and search prices – it did show the super-listers were getting results, with much of the stock attached to their names selling, although getting deals over the line in a market overflowing with listings has not always been easy. Average days to sell hadblown in many cases.
Bailey says like every agent in the country, he and his team have had to work harder.
“We’ve got to be better at what we do. I’m finishing work most nights at 9pm, it’s some long days at the moment. I’m in the office every day at eight in the morning,” he says.
“The work is there but it doesn’t fall on your lap like it used to, so you have to go and hunt for it.”
But that’s the measure of a good agent – not-so-good agents have been leaving and switching companies. Bailey puts the success of his team this way: “In these sorts of markets when the tide goes out you can see who’s wearing togs.”
Harcourts Gold agent Cameron Bailey: “The work is there but it doesn’t fall on your lap like it used to, so you have to go and hunt for it.” Photo / George Heard
Bailey's top settled sale this year was this expansive home on Wood Lane, in Fendalton. It fetched $8m. Photo / Supplied
He still orchestrates 18 open homes on busy weekends, saying he does so not because he’s chasing the sale these days but because he loves the job and feels privileged to be a part of people’s journeys. One of his clients is going through a cancer scare and it’s rewarding to help such clients.
“Sometimes the best parts are not even the real estate side. I’m sitting down with someone and hearing their life lessons and things like that. Real estate is so emotional.”
While most of his business is repeat or by referral, his listings are up partly as a reflection of the market, in that there are just more listings available. But Christchurch has survived a bit better than other areas, too, as it did not have the highs that Auckland and Wellington had, which meant neither did it have the lows.
“We’ve certainly had prices come back and it’s still challenging. I still think we’re going to have a challenging market for the next one or two years.”
Bailey’s biggest sale this year was $8m for a mansion in Fendalton, but he says his bread-and-butter range is more around the $1m mark, and he also recently sold a unit for $550,000 in Ilam.
Those high-end sales stand out more but he says everyone gets the same treatment and service.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Eddie Zhao says vendors this year needed "a bit of persistence if they want to sell”. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Second on the list is Eddie Zhao, from Barfoot & Thompson’s West Harbour branch in Auckland. Zhao has moved up from the number 20 slot last year. He had 255 listings for the period measured – that’s an 84.8% increase. The average value of his listings was over $1.33m and the total value was $340,898,000.
Zhao says a lot of townhouses have come onto the market but also says a lot of people left for Australia which contributed to a sudden oversupply of stock, leading to “slow motion” in the market.
Properties were selling but were taking longer: “People just need a bit of persistence if they want to sell.”
The big change he noticed is that in a tough market, people preferred to buy the ready product for less money as opposed to buying off the plan.
Zhao also sells top-end product but says that market is flatter because where he used to sell $5m or $10m homes regularly, that rate had fallen to only one or two.
Demand is much higher in the first-home buyer and downsizer market with locations like West Harbour popular because properties are not overpriced and Costco and the Mall appeal to buyers.
In Hamilton, Yvenna Yue of Harcourts took out the third highest spot, overtaken this year one place by Zhao. Yue sells with partner Craig Annandale, who is number 15.
They are pulling out the stops to get sales across the line and Yue says launch parties are a new selling technique the couple has been employing, resulting in some strong sales. The whole team is involved, and she ropes in her children to help out.
“You dress up nice and have proper champagne and canapes.”
Harcourts Hamilton agents Yvenna Yue and Craig Annandale. Yue says they pulled out all the stops to get sales over the line this year. Photo / Alan Gibson
A lot of rich people come along and at one launch party this year a VIC (Very Important Client) turned up in an $800,000 car. This kind of turnout gives confidence to buyers who see people are still doing well in Hamilton, “so it’s not like the economy is going to crash. It just brings a fresh way to market the high-end ones.”
Not all launch party attendees have $4.85m to spend, which is the amount fetched for a Chartwell Property, but they might have $2m, $3m or $4m to spend on another property.
Yue prides herself on getting listings across price ranges and says the majority of her listings are in the $700,000s.
She also says an agent’s true talents come out in a tough market, which is why her team had been in demand, and consistency is everything.
“You have to do the basics, to follow up the buyer, follow up the vendor, get the good photos, good marketing, good presentation, all these kinds of things.
“If you have any agent saying they are not doing well, they are probably not doing the basics.”
A top agent for Harcourts JK Realty in Mt Albert, Aman Gulia, sells across market price bands but has a strong reputation in developments, in part because he understands the ins and outs of the Unitary Plan.
Number 14 on the list, Gulia says a lot of development sites that were sold in 2021 either came back on the market to be resold over the year or arrived in the market as completed townhouses.
Harcourts agent Aman Gulia says he is working 60 to 70 hours a week. Photo / Fiona Goodall
While hard work is important to success - Gulia was working 60 to 70 hours a week at the time of writing – reading the market is also important and two years ago his team decided not to sign any more off-plan sales because they saw the market was heading down.
They also only list properties with realistic vendors, because pricing is what sells a property, Gulia says.
“If you do the pricing right it will sell, even if it's a brand-new townhouse in central Auckland or West Auckland, or it's a really, really nice house or it's a big development site - if it's priced right it will sell.”
The year has also been a good one for Garry Singh and the team he has built over 11 years. The top agent for Ray White Takanini and Karaka sells across property types, from standalone houses and lifestyle properties to townhouses and developments.
Singh was 21 on the list with 143 listings – a whopping 101.4% increase. The average value of his listings was $904,755 and the total value was $129,380,000.
Singh puts his success down to a lot of hard work and long hours, and also working closely with mortgage brokers, banks, buyers and sellers and staying on top of the market.
He, too, says a lot of properties have come to market from people relocating to Australia, but the buying tends to stay strong in South Auckland because there is a lot of employment around, such as at the airport and at Highbrook.
First-home buyers had more choice and more power in the market this year as a result of the listings surge. Photo / Fiona Goodall
A lot of sales have gone to first-home buyers interested in anything from quarter acre properties to townhouses, and sites that can accommodate multiple dwellings were also sold.
Singh was also putting in long hours – he had just finished 36 hours in three days. He works six days a week and credits his team which he says perform multiple tasks and is “ten out of ten” across all formats and platforms.
“The reality is we’re just doing the same thing again and again and being there for people in the tough times.”
A new entrant on the list was Rocky Liu at number 26. The Barfoot & Thompson agent is based in Albany but sells across the North Shore and in West Auckland. His listings were up 88.9% on the same period last year.
A lot of his stock is brand-new townhouses as well as developments and subdivisions, but he also sells standalone houses.
Liu says some of the townhouses he has listed are very high spec and architecturally-designed in areas like Takapuna and Milford. Some have lifts which appeals to downsizers.
He is noticing a trend of developers hiring architects to incorporate outdoor spaces for townhouses, because some people still want that, but some buyers, especially young people, like that there is such little maintenance.
“Because most of young people, young family, they don’t want to do any garden. They are too busy during the day and after work. They just want to go home, sit on sofa and have dinner and maybe have some family time and that’s it.”
In Wanaka, McGoun, of Bayleys, was at number 36 and while he had dropped a little he says that’s probably more to do with his team restructuring because listings are up and the team has expanded.
McGoun’s average search price topped the tables at $1.925m and he says Wanaka prices have risen and there have been more multi-million-dollar sales taking place.
Wanaka has a lot of absentee owners and the changes to the bright-line test had freed up people to sell without being taxed, which also boosted listings numbers, as had the little bit of relief seen on interest rates.
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