House prices: Buying at peak continues to sting property sellers in pocket

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ

A penthouse apartment in Auckland’s Ōrākei, a house next door to a golf course in Mt Maunganui and a Lower Hutt townhouse are just some of the properties being advertised for sale for significantly less than they were bought for in recent years.

The Ōrākei apartment was bought for $6 million in February 2020 and is now listed for inquiries over $5m.

The four-bedroom Lower Hutt house was bought for $1.87m in November 2021 and is listed for inquiries over $1.35m.

The Mt Maunganui home was bought for $3.29m in November 2021 and has an asking price of $2.85m.

This four-bedroom Lower Hutt house was bought for $1.87m in November 2021 and has been listed for inquiries over $1.35m. Photo / Google Maps

The salesperson for the latter property said it was surplus to requirements and the vendors did not live in it. “They are selling because they have some commercial interests to pursue.”

CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall looked at properties listed around the country with an advertised price, where the home had been bought between the start of 2020 and the end of 2021.

In Lower Hutt, 55.9% of houses that met this criteria had an asking price more than $10,000 below what they were bought for.

This Mount Maunganui home was bought for $3.29m in November 2021 and has an asking price of $2.85m. Photo / Google Maps

In Wellington City it was 47.2%, Manukau 46.7%, Palmerston North 40%, central Auckland 34.2% and Horowhenua 31.6%.

At the other end of the scale, 14% of the listings in Selwyn that met the criteria were being sold for at least $500,000 more than their purchase price.

A lifestyle property in Lincoln bought for $1.26m in August 2020 is for sale asking for offers over $1.85m. A house in Matakana, north of Auckland, with a minor dwelling, was bought for $1.95m in September 2020 and is listed at offers over $2.8m.

Goodall said the areas where people were most likely to advertise properties for a lower price were also those that showed up in other CoreLogic analysis of losses – Wellington, the lower half of the North Island and the broader Auckland area.

He said the overall number of properties being listed for a loss was relatively small.

“If you think about the people who bought at the peak and are sitting in negative equity, typically the plan is don’t list, don’t sell, hold on as long as you can. With falling interest rates, that’s likely to continue for now.

“For those who have gone to market because of a change in income or life stage or whatever, you need to have had that change in circumstance and then list at a lower time – the sample size is reducing all the time.”

In Wellington, about half of those asking less than they paid wanted between $10,000 and $100,000 less than their purchase price. Another 15% had asking prices that were between $100,000 and $200,000 less.

Goodall said sometimes salespeople might cite a lower price in advertising to try to capture the interest of more buyers.

“It’s just a listing price, maybe to get people interested to come to an open home but the reality might be they are hopeful the sale price will be higher.”

Many of the listing prices were for “offers over”, he said. “You get more people interested and hope you can stretch them further – that they fall in love and borrow as much as they can to win that auction or tender.”

- RNZ