News — April 2009

29 Apr 2009

Proof that Auckland is the place to be!

Auckland once again scored very highly in the desirability stakes when Mercer Consulting collated results of its 2009 worldwide quality of living survey.

 

Auckland placed 4th equal with Vancouver and was well ahead of Wellington (12th), Dublin (25th), Adelaide (30th), London (38th), Milan (41st), New York (49th). Dubai was rated at (77th) and Baghdad was in last place (215th). There is no doubt that Auckland is a hugely desirable place to live and raise a family, and as such, demand for property in quality Auckland suburbs continues to be undeniably strong.

 

Time and time again we are reminded, be it by ex-pats who come back to the area after many years overseas or by locals who have lived in the area 'forever' and have absolutely no desire to pack up and leave, that greater Ponsonby is certainly classified as a world class city fringe location. While the number of available listings in our area remain at a premium, vendors who come to the market are seeing mighty levels of interest in their properties.

 

It’s fascinating to see how things have changed over the past 3 months and we believe

there is still more to come.

 

We must not lose sight of the fact that the world is a big place and we here in Greater Ponsonby are very small. A huge array of people want to be here and be part of it and they are clearly looking to move right now.

 

 

In terms of buyer activity we can tell you this: 

• Nic Blackie reports strong numbers viewing the stunning property at 6 Grosvenor (91 groups over the first 10 days). 
• Nic Blackie and Dan Reed report that they ended up with 5 buyers for Onewa Rd (1 winner and 4 parties wishing to go into a back–up position). 
• Sue Hatton and Kerri Wayman speak of serious levels of email and phone enquiry on Bannerman Rd and Moira Street. 
• Our 5 bedroom, 344m2 apartment at Jervois Rd is something to behold and is enjoying very strong enquiry from locals and from further afield.

 

SEVEN REASONS

 

Auckland’s rating as 4th best place to live in the quality of living survey mentioned above reminded us of The Ponsonby Plan of March 1988 discussed in the Heritage Study on our area by Di Stewart (please refer to our sources).

 

Back in the eighties the Ponsonby Community and Urban Design Working Party did some wide and lengthy public consultation resulting in the following seven reasons why residents prefer to live in the Ponsonby area:

• Innercity location
• Village atmosphere
• Heritage buildings
• View from the ridges
• Beaches and access to the water
• Tree-lined streets
• Parks

 

As far as we’re concerned these reasons ring truer than ever today!

 

Read more on our neighbourhoods here...

17 Apr 2009

SHARPLY PRICED MARKETING SPECIAL

At Custom Residential we are so confident of the current market conditions that we are offering a heavily reduced marketing package for people who list with us before the end of May.

We've sharpened the pencil even further on our very competitive marketing packages to make it even more affordable for our vendors to present their homes at their very best through a targeted and tailored campaign that suits budget and needs!

Call us today, we are keen to talk to you. 

16 Apr 2009

THE NITTY GRITTY

Early this year we signalled our belief that traditional summer selling activity would extend well beyond the traditional February and March period and that we would see a large number of sold stickers appearing around the local area.

We are now mid way through April and there is no doubt that the considerable momentum the local market has gained so far in 2009 will continue to snowball for at least a couple of months yet.

To understand what all this means in terms of local real estate, please scroll down to our market report called 'From the Local Coal Face'.

Meanwhile our team is busy listing property, with two hot new properties ready to appear in all their glory on our website after the weekend, so make sure you check back.

Also keep an eye on this weekend's Herald Homes, featuring an article on our Larger Than Life stunningly renovated Grey Lynn villa, we guarantee you an interesting read!

FROM THE LOCAL COAL FACE

Essentially, the old adage of ‘Sales fuel Sales' is ringing true. We are seeing a whole lot of new faces at open homes and are registering a whole lot of new email addresses and phone numbers on the databases we hold for all categories of properties.

These new faces are entering the fray thick and fast, finding themselves in a competitive situation with some of the more familiar faces we have seen at open homes over the last 3 to 4 months. It is clear to everyone involved in the industry that the buyer pool seems to be growing on a weekly basis.

Are these people ‘decision makers'? Generally speaking, yes they are. Buyers have certain time frames and criteria to meet and we tend to see some real urgency from them when they see a property that ‘fits the bill'.

What sort of offers are they making? Essentially the answer is: offers that are infinitely better than they were three months ago.

From our experience, we believe that there is still around 1/3rd of buyers out there who are making quite mercenary, tough and highly conditional offers (and generally not getting their names on the property title). The remaining 2/3rds of buyers are doing their home work, evaluating key factors such as location, standard of finish, number of bedrooms, parking and aspect to the sun and then making a very fair, realistic and clean first offer on the property.

These are the people who are the successful purchasers at the moment. Buyers in our area are generally astute, educated and active people, they know that market sentiment has changed and they know that they need to make realistic offers in a prompt fashion if they are to secure a particular property.

They would not be acting this way if there wasn't some heat and competition within the local market.

Needless to say, demand for high-quality local property is huge at present, and I believe there is a genuine window of opportunity for vendors.

Our agents are known for rolling up their sleeves and achieving outstanding results so feel free to give one of them a call. 

 

2 Apr 2009

MULTIPLE OFFER SITUATIONS ARE BACK!

Earlier this year we signalled that in terms of real estate, the summer of '09 would extend well beyond the traditional February/March selling season. We are now in early April and the market seems to be gathering serious momentum which, in our opinion, is likely to ensure the high levels of buyer enquiry continue well into May at the very least.

We are excited to see Multiple Offer situations develop on most of our properties. Our busiest agents this month have been Sue Hatton andacquitted themselves well with their Auctions and/or Multiple Offer negotiations. It's a very interesting time in local real estate at the moment, as you'll read below. It feels a bit like "going back to the future" with open home numbers and a buyer pool that is similar to what we saw in 2005/2006.

During the month of March, It became clear that our local housing market in Greater Ponsonby is definitely benefiting from tough economic conditions abroad. Our website has seen a massive increase in offshore enquiry and total traffic volume has more than doubled between the months of February and March.

Kiwi professionals are returning home and are having to compete with existing local buyers for the best local property. Greater Ponsonby is well known as being a hot spot for executive home buyers and we are seeing that demographic being incredibly active on the house hunting circuit. They are making decisions and more importantly, making offers.

Competition for good property is one step away from being described as fierce, but it seems to be heading that way.

A NEIGHBOURHOOD CASE STUDY TO EXPLAIN:

On Monday night we were in a position to present 4 separate offers to our vendor who had just put her property on the market with us. The first open homes were Saturday and Sunday and all offers came in on the following Monday. An agreement was reached at about 9.30 pm that evening.

This is quite typical of what we are experiencing out there at the moment, which is reminiscent of 2005 /2006.

Our Team sold 7 properties in March and 5 of them were either Auctions with multiple bidders or negotiated Multi offer situations.

The multi offer situation is one that needs to be handled professionally and skilfully by the agents involved. We believe that it is our duty to both the vendor and the buyers to ensure that every single person who expresses interest in a property has the opportunity to put their best foot forward when offers are being presented.

This can be an uneasy time for buyers so it is important that agents act with integrity and keep buyers fully informed and updated throughout the process.

March has been an incredibly busy month and we are a day away from putting up our first sold sticker for April. There is no doubt that a big window of opportunity exists for vendors at present and if you have anquestions about the local market as it currently stands, please feel free to contact one of our staff, we are on the ball and more than happy to catch up for a chat.

It's no trouble - it's our job