National house sales cream $3.8b profit in three months

New Zealand house sales made $3.8 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2017, with Auckland accounting for a $1.6 billion slice of that. Photo / Doug Sherring

House sales have made a mint in the first quarter of 2017, with $3.8 billion in profits.

But it's not all good news, with $24 million in losses recorded by those who made a bad bet on the property market.

The figures come from the latest CoreLogic Pain and Gain report, released today.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest chunk of profits were made in Auckland, with a $1.6 billion slice of the profits.

CoreLogic noted that 3.7 per cent of houses were resold at a loss in the March 2017 quarter, and that losses had been going down since 2011.

"That is unsurprising when you consider the growth in values that the NZ property market has gone through over that period - as prices increase it becomes less likely that a property will sell at a loss," the report said.

But of those who made a loss, investors were more likely to be caught out than someone who lived in the home.

CoreLogic warned that could be a problem if the housing market turned.

"Investors remain a key group of interest for the Reserve Bank of NZ as their loans are viewed as being riskier in downturns," the report said.

Of those houses selling at a loss, on average landlords were left $20,000 out of pocket.

Apartments were the worst hit. While 3.4 percent of house resales were sold at a lower price than they were originally bought at, that figure jumped to 7.4 percent for apartments.

Christchurch was one of the worst areas to try to sell your house, with 7.9 percent of sales going at a loss, part of an worsening trend that started in 2016.

The city also had some of the highest individual losses per sale, with an average loss of $50,000 on those homes that were sold for less than they were bought for.

CoreLogic senior research analyst Nick Goodall said a key point was how few properties were selling at a loss, and that it was trending down.

"This reflects both the wider market conditions and the stage of the property cycle we are in.

"With strong long-term growth, more people are selling at a profit - therefore there's less pain."

With investors taking more losses than homeowners, Goodall said there was reason for caution.

"Based on international experience, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand consider investors to be more risky in market downturn.

"Our analysis would indicate this is indeed the case. The percentages of investors selling at a loss has been consistently higher than it is for owner occupiers, however the difference is not hugely significant.

"It's likely that they type of properties they are purchasing and the market areas they're active in, especially those offering a higher yield, go a long way towards explaining that."

Property Investors Federation executive officer Andrew King said with house prices going up, it wasn't surprising people were making such high profits.

He said it was surprising that even $24 million of losses were suffered.

"However, a lot of people make mistakes when they buy property, and pay too much, or think they can add value to it when in fact they can't.

"The market can turn and they're forced to sell."

He said the biggest mistakes people made were not getting the proper advice before investing, or choosing an area to invest in because it was cheap, and not knowing the area properly.