Auckland sellers told: Don't hold on for better prices

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

Auckland property owners are being told: If you're thinking about selling in the next couple of years, the time to move is now.

Martin Dunn, managing director of apartment specialist real estate agency City Sales, said the Auckland property market was not going to go anywhere soon so there was no point hanging on and hoping for an improvement.

Instead, would-be vendors should look to sell and bargain hard for a good deal on their next purchase.

'We've got what I call a détente between buyers and sellers. That's going to wobble on until the vendors realise that if we're going to sell and buy again on the same market, perhaps we'd better get real and buy a bit harder once we've sold. If people want to sell in the next couple of years, I would do them a disservice to say hang in there.'

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Auckland's median house price was up 1.8 per cent over the year, compared to 8.9 per cent for the rest of the country.

Auckland houses took a median 36 days to sell last month, one day less than the same time last year but two days longer than the rest of New Zealand.

Listings website Realestate.co.nz said the 10,431 properties available for sale in the city at the end of November was the highest for any month since April 2012.

Cameron Bagrie, of Bagrie Economics, said he expected little activity from the market over the next couple of years.

The investor sgement could soften even more, he said.

'Capital gains are just not going to be there for the next few years. But if you look at where yields are, they are low. People need capital gains and those people with a shorter investment horizon will look to hit the eject button.

'What's going to be enticed into the market is investors focused on yield and cash flow. You'll get a lot more long-term leases being offered.'

Dunn said the past year had been the hardest for the central Auckland apartment market that he had seen in 21 years in business.

He said when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a ban on oil exploration earlier in the year 'the lights went out. And they stayed out until November. Eighty-four per cent of our sales are to investors so we're in a particularly sensitive market as far as sentiment goes.'

The average sale price for Auckland CBD apartments sold by City Sales is now $371,329, down from a peak of $440,000