The top end of the market brought home the big money at this week’s auctions in Auckland, but there were affordable opportunities for first home buyers too.
The standout sale at Barfoot & Thompson’s auction on Wednesday was of a four-bedroom luxury home on St Albans Avenue, in Mount Eden, Auckland.
Agent Ketiesha Elliott, who marketed the property with colleague Frank Excell, said that the 72 groups had inspected the property over two weekends of open homes - on par with crowds at the peak of last year’s market.
The villa, which boasted an innovative design by renowned architect Guy Tarrant, was fought over by two bidders at the auction. The ping-pong bids pushed the sale price past to $3.4m, $375,000 more than the villa's 2021 CV.
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“There are a lot of good buyers out there actively looking for good quality in Mount Eden with over $3m to spend. They want something turn-key; quality and well-done is really sought after,” Elliott said.
She also sold two entry-level properties at the same auction - one a two-bedroom unit on Wilkinson Road, in Ellerslie, and the other a three-bedroom 1980s town house on Balmer Lane, in Mount Eden. Both found buyers after they passed in auction. “In terms of prices, they’re still a little bit lower, but it’s awesome to see first home buyers coming back into the market and finding price points under $1m,” she said.
First home buyers also did well on Auckland's North Shore this week.
A two-bedroom 1970s house on Hororata Road, in Hauraki, sold for $890,000 - well below its $1.3m CV. The house, which is within walking distance of Takapuna beach, was billed as a do up.
Another standalone two-bedroom house on Glenwood Avenue, in Birkenhead, sold for just over $1m but below the CV of $1.175m.
“It’s really nice for first home buyers,” said Barfoot & Thompson agent Lily Zhang who marketed the property.
“It’s free-standing, north-facing, newly painted and carpeted with a good garden. We had two bidders, both first home buyers.”
A two-bedroom 1970s house on Hororata Road, in Hauraki, sold for $890,000 this week. Photo / Supplied
Other below-$1m sales included $840,000 for a two-bedroom townhouse in a gated community on Burton Street, in Grafton; $750,000 for a two-bedroom mid-century-style unit in Wyvern Place, in Glenfield; and $850,000 for a stylishly renovated two-bedroom unit on Pukerangi Crescent, in Ellerslie.
Developers are still buying, selectively, too.
Six of them registered, and five fought it out for a sprawling four-bedroom house on 1012sqm on Tipau Street, Torbay, marketed by Barfoot & Thompson agent Bob Voss and Becky Zhu. At one stage, bidding inched up in bids of $1000 to eventually go over the reserve by $50,000 as the hammer came down at $2.08m. The CV is $1.925m.
Voss said that the great corner site, with sea views, close to the beach and zoned for suburban density ticked all the boxes, but buyers were asking for six-to-nine-month settlements and planning to hold the land for future development.
The sales come as figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show just 4678 properties sold across the country in July, 2713 than in the same month last year, and nearly 200 less than last month.
In Auckland, 1419 properties sold, just over half of last July’s 2767 sales. Chief executive Jen Baird, said these sales numbers were the lowest since February 2019, not counting covid affected months during 2021 and 2020.
This four-bedroom house on 1012sqm on Tipau Street, in Torbay, sold for $2.08m. Photo / Supplied
Properties were taking 47 days to sell in July, compared to 31 days last year. With an uptick in new listings, the number of houses for sale has doubled to 26,358 across the country, 10,626 in Auckland.
However, REINZ CEO Jen Baird sees some good news for buyers. “People are coming back. First home buyers see they can now afford homes. This is a better time. They’re saying ‘now is the time to make my move’,” she said, pointing to figures that showed that the under-$1m sales actually went up in Auckland from 37.6% last July to 40.1% of this July’s sales (they still make up over 80% of sales in the rest of New Zealand).
“People have a lot more choice, so they’re taking their time. Anecdotally, we’re hearing from agents that sales are dominated by owner-occupiers with equity in their own homes, at that higher $3m level [in Auckland].”
And while the share of properties sold by auction dropped to 9.8% of national sales, and 17.1% of Auckland’s, Baird said vendors who choose to auction their homes understand it is a process. “If you can find unconditional buyers then you want to test that pool. It’s the start of the process, not the end, it gives people a deadline," she said.
“Nobody wants to pass in, but if you do, then in come the conditional offers."
Baird expects to see the first of spring’s traditional uptick next month, “the sun will come out and so will the listings”.
