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Finance company Hanover has ordered a mortgagee sale of 92 units in a high-rise inner-city Auckland apartment block.
The firm is quitting the units in one wholesale lot in a move that has stunned the real estate community, which says the financier will get much less money back that way.
The mass sale is a further blow to the Auckland apartment market, where prices have plummeted on some properties this year by as much as $169,000.
Hanover loaned money for the Winsun Heights block to be developed at 113 Vincent St in the student zone and 153 units were built.
But it has now told Barfoot & Thompson agent Wayne Muir it wants to quit the block and units are under mortgagee sale.
"We're selling them as one lot," Muir said last night. "I can confirm that we're acting on instructions from Hanover."
The units, 10 carparks and a commercial office unit on the ground level, are being sold.
Sam Stubbs, Hanover's chief, said last night he could not discuss any individual loans and had no knowledge of the deal.
But he said that was not surprising, given Hanover's size, and he could provide more details once he had spoken to the person handling the deal.
Meanwhile, other agents are scrambling to sell the apartments too, saying if they can be quit individually without letting the market know money is outstanding, Hanover will recover more money.
One rival agent estimated that at a mortgagee sale only $6.5 million would be paid for the units, compared to about $10.5 million if the apartments were sold in a more orderly manner.
A court application was made to wind up Winsun Developments, which has gone into receivership.
Its directors are Zhang Hong Wu and Zhong Lin of Torbay and the application was made by Kalmar Projects Ltd.
Steve Lawrence and Anthony McCullagh of Horwath Corporate Auckland were appointed receivers of the income from the Winsun Heights apartments.
Zhang Hong Wu & Zhong Lin are also directors of many other companies, including Golden City Developments.
