Apartment sales rising
Twenty years ago, you could count the number of apartment buildings in central Auckland on your fingers. Martin Dunn rattles off those pioneer buildings . . . Shortland Flats, Brooklyn, Westminster Court, the Courtvilles, Hampton Court, Pembridge and the Ascot. “That comprised 226 apartments.”
In 1997 Martin switched from selling houses to apartments when he started City Sales, New Zealand’s first agency to specialise in apartments, because he envisaged the apartment sector presented “a dramatic opportunity of a whole new market that would be massive”.
“There was always the appetite for apartments in Auckland but there was never the product. All over the world most people live in apartments but we didn’t have that and we didn’t have the infrastructure.
“I felt there was going to be a need for a specialist broker in apartments. It was such a complicated market that requires precise marketing and a different approach to suburban house selling.
“I knew I could adjust to this hard- nose business which is so different to suburban house selling. Most of our sales are still to investors, and they buy with calculators.”
“And I was right because, as of today, we have 503 buildings which is 31,300 apartments give or take 100.
Compare that to selling villas in Grey Lynn, he says. When I started, there were 1700 and in 10 years there will be 1700.”
City Sales at 445 Karangahape Rd launched on April Fool’s Day in 1997.
“It was just me and my wife Shelley and a mate of mine called Steve Clarke.”
Two decades later, City Sales still operates from the same building, but now has around 50 staff, a much larger floor space and the fortnightly auctions include a webcast live on citysales. co. nz.
But those early days weren’t easy. Colleagues questioned what Martin was doing. He had to convince banks and the valuers. Two developers reneged on payments totalling $ 350,000.
“I was pretty much on my knees but we waddled through.”
Looking ahead to the next two decades, Martin thinks the market can continue to grow but there are challenges.
“The significant one is the supply of new apartments, everyone thinks we are being flooded but the opposite is happening, we are going to go down to next to nothing in three years because the banks won’t fund the developers.”
But he is excited about the newcomers to apartment living that he calls the bennie market — baby boomer empty nesters.
“We have people who have come out of perhaps a very ordinary home in Green Bay and got nearly $ 2 million for it, and they are excited. They are buying in the city for maybe $ 1.2 million but also buying in Pauanui for $ 400,000. So, suddenly, they have floor- by- floor security to use, body corp to budget for and they can walk to bars and restaurants.
“And soon they will have a tube station along the road. They are animated and it is a good thing for Auckland. And I am sort of in the hot seat which is very fortunate. Infrastructure change brings culture change which brings dollar change.”
He says as well as the CBD they sell apartments in Mt Wellington, Takapuna, St Lukes, Westmere, Herne Bay, Remuera, Newmarket, Devonport and Manukau.
“The promotion of intensification is, I am sure, the right way for Auckland to grow and to allow for sophisticated infrastructure like the tube and proper rail services,” he says. “Our whole market is going to keep getting bigger.”