How auctions rebounded from worst months ever

Auctions went from not to hot in a rollercoaster year on the auction floor, although the ups and downs were mostly seen in Auckland, with Wellingon a place to watch.

Shane Cortese, Harcourts national auction manager, likened Auckland auction rooms to the wild west coast beaches with big crashing waves while the rest of the country was like the rolling waves of the eastern beaches.

At the start of the year the country’s biggest city was “really tough” across all sales methods, not just auctions.

Cortese said 18 months ago — at the height of the postCovid boom — properties were selling for prices more likely to have been reached in 2024 and 2025, so when prices came back it looked as if they had come down dramatically, but that wasn’t the case.

Auctions were now looking healthy with more bidders being seen in Christchurch, Wellington, Tauranga and Hamilton, and that pre-auction offers have started to come back with some ferocity.

That suggests people thought the market had reached the bottom and, after holding back, were prepared to make their moves, including plenty of first-home buyers.

Barfoot & Thompson auctioneer Marian Tolich has also seen more tears of joy from first-home buyers in a while, which she puts down to the lack of competition from investors for much of the year.

Tolich said auctions were slow through to around August/September when the success rate upped from 20 to 30 percent at the start of the year to 70 per cent.

The relaxing of various rules meant people were able to get finance organised more quickly and a lot more sales were seen in the $700,000 to $900,000 price range.

Tolich said there was a buzz back in auction rooms and more auctions were being held.

Ray White’s lead auctioneer Sam Steele, who travels the country to hold auctions, said the market was a lot more active in recent months compared to last year, be that Christchurch, Wellington or Tauranga.

Nationwide, the Ray White success rate to the end of September was over 50 per cent compared to about 40 per cent last year, and the number of bidders were up about 30 per cent.

Steele said a market to watch was Wellington where auctions have become more popular.

Wellington had traditionally favoured other sales methods but various agencies have been pushing auctions and Steele said the number of Ray White auctions more than quadrupled compared to last year, and there was a big jump in the success rate to 75 per cent.

“It’s a market with so many opportunities when it comes to auctions and we’re starting to see our businesses now really drive home the auction message and having great success with it as well.”

As of August, the average days on the market for Ray White auction sales was down to just 23, compared to private treaty sales which took double the time to sell.

“We haven’t seen days on market for auctions in the early 20s since we last had a boom so I think that definitely tells us the market is in a positive position because properties are not sitting on the market.”

Conor Patton, national auction manager for Bayleys, also said Auckland was the first to notice market changes.

“Auckland experienced a greater price drop and drop in activity earlier in the year than other parts; certainly more than Christchurch and Queenstown and other places.”

Aucklanders borrow a lot more for houses, he said. “They’re (interest rates) more acutely felt I think. If you’ve got a mortgage of $1.5m you’re going to notice it more than if you’ve got a mortgage of $500,000.”

That made Auckland pretty quiet compared to Christchurch, for example, where the market has been more stable.

Christchurch did see big growth in 2021 but off a lower base and the year-on-year price change was quite minor compared to Auckland and Wellington, Patton said.

Queenstown, too, didn’t stall the way Auckland did. “