Chris Wood outside the home he purchased while in MIQ. Photo / Paul Taylor
Chris Wood was sitting in an MIQ hotel in Auckland when he bought a home in Napier through a virtual auction.
Virtual auctions are surging during lockdown in Hawke's Bay as the red-hot housing market continues to attract buyers.
One real estate agency sold eight homes in the region last week via online auctions, during alert level 4, and says a high number of bidders are joining the auctions as restrictions prevent face-to-face gatherings.
"It's great what we can do by Zoom these days," Wood said.
"I went to Australia for four weeks which turned into three months, which left me without even viewing the property, but it has been that hard trying to get one.
"This house came up for auction while I was in Auckland doing MIQ. I spoke to the agent and he gave me a rundown and how it would all go."
Now out of MIQ, Wood is back in Napier and will settle soon on the three-bedroom home in Maraenui, which he bought for $630,000 with two well-known friends.
"They were on The Block, Sam Cable and Emmett Vallender, and won the season in 2016."
Wood said the experience of buying a house by online auction was "pretty exciting", and had been helped through it by his Tremains agent.
"You see [the auctioneer] standing at a podium with a hammer.
"You hear her calling it, so it feels like you are sitting in the crowd, and she is calling out the bids."
Wood said he used to be in hospitality for 15 years but now works largely with property, buying and doing up homes.
"I thoroughly enjoy property and renovations, I love it, it is so much fun."
Tremain Real Estate managing partner Simon Tremain said he was surprised at the number of bidders who were joining virtual auctions.
He said last week they sold 13 properties on online auctions including eight in Hawke's Bay.
"We are actually seeing more bidders in lockdown than we have in the normal run of the mill process," he said.
"We were very surprised but when you look at it, it is very easy.
"The agents can flick the link around and people can jump on the link and come in ... it is very easy for people to make the auction rooms.
"In normal situations, people are at work or they like the property but not enough to go out of their way to get there for the auction.
"Basically it makes it easy for people to bid."
Lockdown has so far prevented people from attending viewings and auctions in person.
However, at alert level 3, contactless private viewings are permitted with strict conditions, while open homes and physical auctions remain prohibited.
Housing Figures
The red-hot housing market in Napier and Hastings has been highlighted in the latest housing data, released by OneRoof-Valocity.
During the past 12 months, to August 2021, Napier saw a 34.2 per cent rise in the average house price, growing from $664,000 to $864,000.
That was the third highest rise of any major town or city in New Zealand only behind Whanganui (34.9 per cent increase) and Gisborne (35.8 per cent increase).
However, in what could be a good sign for prospective buyers, surging house prices have slowed somewhat during the past quarter in Hawke's Bay.
The latest figures show between June and August the average house price rose 4.3 per cent in the region, compared with almost 11 per cent during the previous quarter.
Tremain said there were many factors which could contribute to that drop including recent changes to loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions.
NZ cities, towns with largest increase in average house prices in past 12 months:
1. Gisborne
$664,000 average property price (35.8 per cent increase)
2. Whanganui
$557,000 average property price (34.9 per cent increase)
3. Napier
$864,000 average property price (34.2 per cent increase)
4. Palmerston North
$744,000 average property price (33.3 per cent increase)
5. Hastings
$891,000 average property price (32.8 per cent increase)
*Date range is the 12 months to August 31, 2021.