Increasing inquiries and strong auction clearance rates for Ray White Auckland Central

Ray White Auckland Central are seeing increasing levels of inquiry and have had another month of strong auction clearance rates in September.

Director of City Realty Group, Daniel Horrobin, says: “We had active bidding on all our auctions in September, including those properties which were passed in. There were no auctions which failed to see bidding. 

“Our auction clearance rates are now sitting at 65% over the last three months and 72.85% year-to-date. 

“We constantly monitor the success rates of properties sold by auction compared to properties sold by other methods and know auctions continue to produce the best results. Auctions involve much more than just the actual auction as there can be pre-auction offers, properties sold under the hammer and properties sold as a result of negotiations post auction.” 

Inquiry levels about city apartment properties have increased month on month with a number of buyers feeling around to gauge the bottom of the market. 

Daniel says: “There has been commentary that the OCR may continue to increase in efforts to harness inflation, fuelling even higher interest rates. Because of this there are buyers motivated to act now in order to avoid those higher interest rates.” 

The City Apartments market is still predominantly driven by investors, who tend to be well-informed, savvy buyers.

 “They typically understand the market, financial conditions and what return on investment they will achieve.” 

City Apartments rental portfolio is also benefiting from an increase in inquiry levels. Some of this can be attributed to the number of migrants in the central city slowly increasing. A significant surge is anticipated when considerable numbers of international students arrive to study in central Auckland early next year. 

Daniel says: “We are pleased to report that rental levels of inquiry are continuing to increase. 

“Many properties are being rented after just one or two viewings. There’s an increase in demand from people currently living overseas seeking to secure accommodation prior to arriving in Auckland.”

Trade Me monitoring provides evidence of this increasing rental activity. They reported a decrease in number of listings by approximately 1000 and a substantial increase in demand of approximately 10,000 for rentals in Auckland CBD between July 2022 and August 2022.