Auckland apartment sells for $1 million less than it was bought for

An apartment in this building on Remuera Rd was sold in 2024 for $1 million less than the seller paid for it in 2018. Photo / Google Maps

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ

An Auckland property that sold for $300,000 less than the owner paid for it two years ago might have made the news this week – but it is far from the biggest loss sustained by a seller this year.

The Māngere East property sold at mortgagee sale for $490,000 but last changed hands for $750,000 in March 2022.

But Nick Goodall, the head of research at property value firm CoreLogic, said the biggest loss recorded so far this year was for a Remuera apartment, which sold for $1 million less than it had previously been bought for.

It was sold for $5.5m on April 12, after being bought for $6.5m in March 2018.

Goodall said it was a higher-end apartment. “There’s limited demand or limited market that can buy those types of property – it’s one of those ones where it’s been bought with the intention of holding it long-term and living in it but then circumstances change and the market wasn’t there when they had to try to sell it.”

He said with interest rates high this year, it would also affect the number of people willing to pay a large amount for an apartment.

The next largest loss was a house on Ngaio St, Ōrākei, which lost $760,000. It was sold for $1.95m after being bought just over three years earlier for $2.71m.

A Hill Rd, Palm Beach house was third, losing $660,000 when it sold for $1.24m after being bought for $1.9m just over two years ago.

Goodall said the majority of the losses in the top five – which also included a Ventnor St, Seatoun, property and one in Dornoch Place, Papakōwhai, were properties bought at the peak of the market in late 2021 or early 2022.

“The market was booming at that time, there might have been some slightly irrational prices being paid ... people overpaid slightly and then had difficulty as interest rates increased and made life tough.

“It’s hard to know what’s happening for individual circumstances but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t something else that happened to their situation [to cause them to sell] ... the worst problem with negative equity is when you have a change in income circumstances, maybe the loss of a job, it can lead to people having to accept a lower price.”

Property investor and investment coach Steve Goodey agreed losses were usually driven by the vendor’s circumstances rather than being due to a particular type of property, at present.

He said he had looked at one Wellington property and was told by one agency that the seller wanted $1.7m, but was quoted $700,000 by another that listed it as a mortgagee sale.

“Most people sell based on their motivation and big losses tend to happen when motivation is forced on a vendor – mortgagee sales, divorces, bank issues.”

- RNZ