Last week’s cash rate cut by the Reserve Bank seems to have ignited buyer interest in Auckland’s housing market.
In the east Auckland suburb of Beachlands, Ray White agent Jacqueline McGearty had to bring four extra staff to help with the crowds at her open home for 29 Puriri Road last weekend.
She told OneRoof that the four-bedroom 1990s house, which sits on a 5160sqm site near Pine Harbour ferry terminal, was well known in the neighbourhood.
More than 100 groups poured through the 90-minute showing, with McGearty alerted to the size of the crowds by the buzz the home had created on social media and the number of enquiries she had received.
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“We had to open early and didn’t close until 4pm. We had cars stacked up outside like it was a festival. Everyone was saying it was their dream house and they were off to buy a Lotto ticket.”
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She said her vendor, who has owned the property since 1989, was overwhelmed by the numbers at the house – many of whom were genuine buyers.
“I managed to do 10 private inspections back-to-back with really engaged buyers. We’ve had around 20 requests from interested parties,” she said, adding buyers were drawn to the classic design of the house, its sea views, and land size.
McGearty said she had received emails from Kiwis in the UK, Singapore, Dubai and USA, as well as buyers from Northland, Tauranga and nearby Whitford. One interested party was even tossing up between Beachlands and waterfront Herne Bay.
The four-bedroom trophy home is well-known in the area. Photo / Supplied
Shoes outside the door at the open home. Photo / Supplied
The house has a price indication well above its CV of $3.5 million, which McGearty said massively undervalued the property. “Preliminary feedback on pricing has ranged between $4.5m to over $6m, indicating strong demand at this early stage,” she said.
McGearty is not the only agent to note a lift in buyer interest. Diego Traglia, from Harcourts North West Realty, said in the space of a weekend, enquiries to his team were up 35% and the average number of people into open homes increased from 3.2 groups per property to 5.3.
Traglia picked the bottom of the market back in early August and said while that may have been a bit too soon, the bottom was now passed.
“The market has turned, mark my words. I’ve never had a jump of a third more enquiries from the previous week like that.”
Along with enquiries being up, he has also had offers and pending sales on properties, including some which had been taking their time to sell.
“I had a townhouse that was very, very quiet, if not dead, for eight weeks and we received a multi-offer with the top offer being $26,000 above the asking price.”
Interest in this two-bedroom home at 6/21 Titoki Street, Te Atatu Peninsula, has surged. Photo / Supplied
A brick and tile home at 29 Killygordon Place, in Massey, is under contract. Photo / Supplied
The two-bedroom Titoki Place property in Te Atatu Peninsula is being advertised as enquiries over $675,000.
Another property in Massey with a large power pylon overlooking it, “one of the biggest you can get”, had 11 groups through and went under contract for $75,000 more than the vendor’s bottom price.
This property, a four-bedroom, two-bathroom brick and tile at 29 Killygordon Place, has a CV of $966,000.
People usually “run for the hills” when they see a power pylon but Traglia felt the quick sale was an indication that “Fear of Missing Out” – or FOMO – was back.
Another property, a plaster house at 31 Makora Road, in Massey, was under contract, while a house at 51 Semillon Avenue, in Henderson, had attracted 20 groups in its first weekend of open homes. This property has a $1.25m CV and goes to auction on November 9.
Traglia said all sorts of buyers who had been watching and waiting for interest rates to fall had now woken up, and they were across price ranges, from entry-level buyers to families.
Harcourts agent Diego Traglia: “The longer you wait, the more you’ll have to pay. It’s as simple as that.” Photo / Fiona Goodall
“They are the people that have been telling me for weeks and weeks, ‘I’m waiting to see what happens’, and I’ve been telling them, ‘Well, what’s going to happen is there will be an announcement, the news will report it, and everyone will come on the market at once and try to buy, so buy now before everyone else does’.
“But, of course, that’s an agent saying that and they disregard it but now they find themselves ‘Well, maybe I should have listened a little bit more’.”
Falling interest rates were driving activity, he said. “I think a lot of people will be saying, ‘now is the time’. They’ve been waiting and watching.”
Traglia said vendors were also regaining confidence and coming to market, and more would continue to do so, and he expected a pre-Christmas rush of buyers.
His advice to would-be buyers was: “The longer you wait, the more you’ll have to pay. It’s as simple as that.”
Having said that, while prices could increase he did not expect prices to hike next year because of the amount of stock on the market.
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* Additional reporting by Catherine Smith
