Some of the large real estate agencies are kicking off the year with mega auction day events.
Mega days, where agencies stack dozens of properties to be auctioned all in one day, are not unusual but are often held later in the year. They disappeared from the market during the slump but came back on the scene in the middle of last year.
It's hoped scores properties will sell under the hammer next week. Ray White is holding two in Auckland, in Manukau and the North Shore, on Wednesday, January 31, while Harcourts on the North Shore is holding one in Takapuna the next day, on Thursday, February 1. All up, 165 properties collectively worth more than $100m will be auctioned over the space of 24 hours.
Read more:
Start your property search
- Kiwi rich-lister who brought the magic to Rip Curl selling designer pad
- James Hardie manor back on the market after stunning renovation ... and new location
- Best-selling real estate author: From $100m deals to life 'in the gutter'
Harcourts Cooper & Co managing director Martin Cooper says the agency has been running auction mega days for a number of years but elevated their event this year, known simply as The Day, because punters often think nothing happens in the real estate market this time of year.
“A lot of people have a preconceived idea that the Auckland real estate market is very quiet because we come into Auckland Anniversary Weekend at the end of January, and then we come into Waitangi Weekend the first week in February.”
In reality, people have more time to go real estate shopping during their annual holidays, when they have not got the usual school drop offs and pick ups to do or sporting commitment routines to take care of.
“What we found is there is quite an active group of people out looking at buying real estate so we decided to take advantage of that.” Harcourts Coper & Co will be calling 49 properties at its auction rooms in Takapuna from 10am to 4pm.
Pitched as an affordable option is a three-bedroom home at 2/23 Heathglen Place, in Bayview, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
One of the star attractions at Harcourts big auction event is 8/361 Paremoremo Road, in Albany, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
The properties went live on January 1 on a variety of portals and high volumes of people have been through open homes, says Cooper, pointing to a four-bedroom, three bathroom Milford house at 2/37 Nile Road with a $1.2m CV which had dozens of people through.
The Harcourts Copper & Co office network covers other parts of Auckland so there will be properties from the likes of Botany and West Auckland auctioned as well across different price points in a diverse portfolio.
The properties have received more exposure from the saturation marketing campaign, Cooper says: “If there's a buyer out there, they should know about the property because of the additional promotion we're putting in around it.”
Cooper always hopes for a 100% clearance rate but says one of 70% would be excellent.
Other properties up for bidding include an affordable three-bedroom house in Bayview with a $920,000 CV and a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom “resort style” property on Paremoremo Road in Albany with a pool and two hectares of land.
A four-bedroom, two-bathroom “lakefront sanctuary” in Manurere Place in Takapuna with a $4.7m CV is also on offer.
Another Harcourts stand-out is 2 Manurere Avenue, in Takapuna, Auckland, a four-bedroom lakefront home with a $4.7m CV. Photo / Supplied
On offer at Ray White Manukau's The Day is a four-bedroom home at 58 Hallberry Road, in Mangere East, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
The marketing says this property is renovated and has a newly refurbished pontoon so people can swim, kayak and paddleboard from the back garden.
Harcourts national auction manager Shane Cortese will be among the auction team and says auctions are always exciting but this mega day will kickstart the market.
“I thought it was an outstanding idea to get it done earlier in the year and ignite some action within the market.”
Ray White’s auction days are being held in Manukau and on the North Shore.
Ray White lead auctioneer Sam Steele says 57 auctions will be held at The Day, an A T Realty event, while 59 will be held in Albany on the North Shore by a number of Shore offices.
Big auction days are good for profile building but the main reason they are so successful is because there are so many buyers in one room, in one place, on the same day, says Steele.
“The eyeballs and the exposure the individual properties can get is just so helpful and actually competitive.”
That number of eyeballs can drive prices up on the day: “If you are a homeowner and you put your property into a campaign like this, you can guarantee that more people are going to see it and potentially bid on it than if you did it somewhere else, so they are very, very powerful.”
Owners want to take part based on strong clearance rates and good prices fetched from previous days, and also because of high numbers of registered bidders.
“So we’ve got evidence to actually back it up to owners, to say this is what happened the last three times we've done it, this is why you need to do it.”
A four-bedroom do-up for sale at at 9 Lawrence Crescent, in Hillpark, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Another do-up up for grabs is 107 Flat Bush Road, in Clover Park, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Properties range from a four-bedroom, two-bathroom first home or investment on Hallberry Road, Mangere East, with a CV of $1.2m to a four-bedroom “do-up” in Lawrence Crescent, Hillpark, which has a $1.1m CV.
Another do-up will also feature, in Clover Park with a CV of $840,000.
On the North Shore, The Event is taking place at the North Shore Golf Club at 51 Appleby Road in Albany and consists of offerings from offices round the North Shore, from Beach Haven to the Hibiscus Coast to Takapuna.
Glenn Carpenter, of Carpenter Realty, says excitement is building because it has been over 10 years since the Ray White on the Shore has held a big auction day like this.
“It creates a lot of interest from the buying public. The collective strength of marketing all the properties at once means each property is helping the others.”
More interest means more bidders and that can only have a positive effect on the results and prices achieved, he says.
On the block at Ray White's big auction event on the North Shore is 42 Church Street, in Northcote Point. Photo / Supplied
62 Holland Road, in Hillcrest, comes with an inviting outdoor pool. Photo / Supplied
Properties again are diverse, with a three-bedroom freehold bungalow with a $1.7m CV in Northcote Point on offer, and a five-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Hillcrest with a $1.325m CV which features an outdoor pool area.
For those who fancy a country estate, another offering is a big eight-bedroom home on Woodhill Park Road, Waimauku, with a CV of $2.325m.
This house, on 2.38 hectares, was “born from two villas” which were relocated in the 1990s with the owners running and education business from the site.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Auckland
