KEY POINTS:
Real estate agents City Sales says there is no better time than now to be buying apartments.
And City Sales says there is no better time to be selling apartments too.
Confused?
City Sales principal agent Martin Dunn posted a "market note" on its website last month advising its clients - many of whom already own investment apartments in Auckland - to buy another one. "You do not need to be a brain surgeon to work out what to do," Mr Dunn wrote.
Three weeks later, City Sales sent a letter to apartment owners saying there was a chill coming over the Auckland market and "NOW" would be a good time to call the company about selling.
The letter, signed by sales manager Rowena Tinone but written by Mr Dunn, told apartment owners "it may be a time for caution" and that the Auckland property cycle was going to peak this year.
Mr Dunn was overseas on holiday and unable to return calls this week.
City Sales sales director Mike Richards explained the differing messages by saying the "sell NOW" letter was addressed to apartment owners who were "over-committed".
Mr Richards said he could not understand how people could be confused by the two messages.
"There's always two stories in this market," Mr Richards said.
Mr Dunn recently spoke of how buyers had been lured into Auckland's once booming apartment market by promises of big money, but were facing large losses when they found the rental predictions were too high.
In his June market note - titled "a tale of two markets" - he described "off-plan" apartments as a "spruiker" market, which was fuelling "apartment crash" headlines.
But the "real" market was in people who could not buy a suburban home and were looking for a flat.
