"I knew I could adjust to this hard-nose business which is so different to suburban house selling. Most of our sales are still to investors, and they buy with calculators."
"And I was right because, as of today, we have 503 buildings which is 31,300 apartments give or take 100.
Compare that to selling villas in Grey Lynn, he says. When I started, there were 1700 and in 10 years there will be 1700."
City Sales at 445 Karangahape Rd launched on April Fool's Day in 1997.
"It was just me and my wife Shelley and a mate of mine called Steve Clarke."
Two decades later, City Sales still operates from the same building, but now has around 50 staff, a much larger floor space and the fortnightly auctions include a webcast live on citysales.co.nz.
But those early days weren't easy. Colleagues questioned what Martin was doing. He had to convince banks and the valuers. Two developers reneged on payments totalling $350,000.
"I was pretty much on my knees but we waddled through."
Looking ahead to the next two decades, Martin thinks the market can continue to grow but there are challenges.
"The significant one is the supply of new apartments, everyone thinks we are being flooded but the opposite is happening, we are going to go down to next to nothing in three years because the banks won't fund the developers."
But he is excited about the newcomers to apartment living that he calls the bennie market - baby boomer empty nesters.
"We have people who have come out of perhaps a very ordinary home in Green Bay and got nearly $2 million for it, and they are excited.
"They are buying in the city for maybe $1.2 million but also buying in Pauanui for $400,000.
"So, suddenly, they have floor-by-floor security to use, body corp to budget for and they can walk to bars and restaurants.
"And soon they will have a tube station along the road. They are animated and it is a good thing for Auckland. And I am sort of in the hot seat which is very fortunate. Infrastructure change brings culture change which brings dollar change."
He says as well as the CBD they sell apartments in Mt Wellington, Takapuna, St Lukes, Westmere, Herne Bay, Remuera, Newmarket, Devonport and Manukau.
"The promotion of intensification is, I am sure, the right way for Auckland to grow and to allow for sophisticated infrastructure like the tube and proper rail services," he says. "Our whole market is going to keep getting bigger."
