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Barfoot & Thompson staged a "clearance" auction of 51 North Shore properties in Auckland last night, but was only able to sell 3 properties as buyers were scarce and bids even scarcer, attendees at the auction said.
Real estate agents and property investors are reporting that demand virtually dried up in March and April as first home buyers withdrew from the market because of higher interest rates and high prices, while property investors have stepped back given uncertainty about house prices.
Demand in Auckland is particularly weak given the recent fallout from the Blue Chip collapse, which has burnt many apartment investors in New Zealand's biggest city.
Auckland's biggest real estate agency group heavily promoted the auction for the last 3 weeks, hoping to clear out a backlog of properties and force many vendors to face up to reality in a buyers' market.
But attendees said very few buyers attended the auction and many auctions received no bids at all.
Barfoot & Thompson director Peter Thompson was not immediately available to comment on the news.
Barfoot & Thompson reported only 632 sales in March, down 56.2 per cent from a year ago. Some observers are expecting sales to be lower than 600 in April given market conditions and fresh disruption with the upcoming Anzac holiday weekend.
- INTEREST.CO.NZ
