FOMO factor is receding in Auckland. Agents report that buyers are still prepared to bid hard and pay top dollar but only for properties that tick all the boxes
Family homes in Auckland’s central suburbs are performing best, with recent auctions recording several sales of well over $3 million.
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One, a five-bedroom home on Dunedin Street in St Marys Bay, fetched $4.45m under the hammer – well above its 2017 CV of $2.875m.
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Bayleys agent Gary Wallace, who marketed the water-view property with wife Vicki and son Andrew Wallace, said while some homes were attracting all the attention others were as lucky.
“The FOMO is gone and it’s very property specific now. Some [houses] have really good buyer interest and some go to a certain level and the buyers stop bidding very quickly and move on,” he said of the flurry of properties that have been passing in at auctions after failing to reach the reserve.
That wouldn’t have been the case a few months ago, he said, with most buyers too scared to miss out and bidding accordingly. This led to big price expectations among vendors.
“It’s natural for vendors to put pretty high expectations and come up with higher than usual reserve price. There are a lot of negotiations going on at the moment, but we are very comfortable with that,” he said.
Two properties where FOMO was very much alive were a pair of neighbouring sites on the same cross-lease title on Irirangi Road in Greenlane. The pair of properties, which sold as one, fetched $3.511m.
The listing agent, Lindy Lawton, said there were four active bidders, with bidding kicking off at a high $2m.
“There FOMO is still present for certain properties,” Lawton said. “In this case two people just kept going and didn’t want to miss out on the property.”
This property in Royal Oak, Auckland was bought by a developer for $3.3m. Photo / Supplied
Also selling under the hammer for more than $3m at Bayleys auction last week was a do-up property on Boyd Avenue in Royal Oak.
The listing agent, Jock Kooger, said five bidders battled to secure the property, which ended up selling for $3.3m - $1.5m above CV.
Kooger said he had noticed a drop off in enquiries from investors this month following the Government’s changes to the tax rules for investment purchases.
“Home owners are looking for the right property to buy but investors and developers are on the side lines and there’s less buyers showing up to auctions,” he said.
However, certain suburbs were performing better than others, with Royal Oak and Epsom still attracting “phenomenal” interest.
“Selected areas of Milford have also been really crazy,” he added.
Last week a two-bedroom do-up in Milford sold under the hammer at Barfoot and Thompson’s auctions for $3.86m, more than double its CV.
Marketed by Nadja Court, the Stratford Avenue property was pitched as development play, with the land zoned mixed housing urban.
