Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Bindi Norwell. Photo / File
Properties in the Bay of Plenty are selling at auction faster than any other region in the country.
Demand and supply has also meant many houses were selling above vendor expectations as people wanted to secure houses fast.
Meanwhile, some local agents say auctions were now "the flavour of the month" as the popularity of auctions continued to soar.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Bindi Norwell said she had seen a significant uplift in the number of auctions around the country.
"Auctions are a good way to find the value of a property when the market is moving as quickly as it is at the moment."
Norwell said feedback from auctioneers around the country was that auction rooms were "extremely busy" and the number of registered bidders higher than usual as people looked to secure properties quickly.
"Particularly now we're heading towards Christmas and people want to be in their new home for the summer break."
From the vendor's perspective, Norwell said selling by auction was more likely to achieve a faster turnaround than selling by tender or negotiation.
Selling your property by auction is likely to be four days quicker than any other method according to REINZ analysis.
"The fastest region to sell a property by auction compared to price by negotiation or tender is the Bay of Plenty, where it's nearly two weeks' quicker [13 days] to sell a property by auction.
"This is followed by Northland and Southland where it's 12 and 10 days' quicker respectively.
"However, in Taranaki it's actually slower to sell your property by auction, showing just how different things can be in different parts of the country."
Looking forward, Norwell said there was no significant sign that things will change in the coming months.
"Although, with pressure starting to be placed on the Reserve Bank in terms of re-introducing LVRs, this may slow things down a little if it comes to pass."
Managing director of the Realty Group Ltd, which operates Eves and Bayleys, Simon Anderson, said there had been higher clearance rates in the auction room than normal.
"There's also a lot of pre-auction offers happening and a lot of owners were starting to lift their expectations."
Anderson said there was "standing room only" in the auction room.
"We are seeing interest in auctions, which we haven't seen since 2016."
Realty Group Ltd auctioneer Grant Child described auction activity as "buoyant" and said a lot of vendors were electing to go to auction.
Child said the auction rooms were never empty and they were constantly getting more than 100 people viewing auctions online.
"Rooms are always either three-quarters full or chock-a-block.
"There's a certain amount of nervousness in the auction room from both buyers and vendors. But the buzz in the auction room is alive."
An auction lets the buyers determine what a property was worth, he said.
"For a vendor, you wouldn't want to be doing anything else in this market because by going to auction you're going to achieve the best the market is prepared to pay on the day.
"The true market is determined by what the top person is prepared to pay.
"For buyers, there is uncertainty about what a property is truly worth but by participating in an auction you can see what other buyers are prepared to pay for a property."
General manager of Tremains Bay of Plenty and Waikato, Anton Jones, said auctions were busy and there were plenty of pre-auction offers happening.
Jones said pre-auction offers and sales under the hammer were often selling for between $50,000 and $100,000 more.
"That's lifechanging stuff for a lot of people."
At an auction earlier this week
the auction room was "packed" for a property in Judea, which sold "well above" the vendor's expectations.
First National Real Estate Tauranga general manager Cameron Hooper said auctions have been hit and miss with different properties and locations delivering varied results.
"It's difficult to price accurately again similar to the 2016 market with experienced salespeople getting surprised at where the market ends up seeing the value in the properties.
"So an auction is in most cases still the best way to start the marketing campaign off."
Professionals McDowell Real Estate co-owner Steve Lovegrove said auctions were now "the flavour of the month".
Lovegrove said that was because there were multiple buyers for property, however, people were getting frustrated on missing out of multiple offers.
"An auction is a public event where people can see what's happening, what properties are selling for and who's buying.
"With an auction, you can publicly see what a property sells for the minute the hammer goes down. We are getting a lot of market observers lately."
He said the company was beginning to list many auctions in the next few months.
Harcourts Rotorua sales manager Colville Barbour said auctions on October 30 attracted strong interest with three out of four residential properties selling under the hammer exceeding vendor expectations.
Tremains Rotorua sales manager Megan Davies said auctions across the Tremains group were consistently closing under the hammer above expectation and sale prior to auction was "very much entertained".
"Auctions are the key to grabbing unconditional buyers in this market and we would be doing more if we had stock lasting longer.
"A four-week campaign is too long for some of our vendors."
The company was currently training auctioneers, with The Auction Lady Sabine Davison who was The Block New Zealand auctioneer from 2012-2017 as their group auctioneer.
First National principal and Rotorua Real Estate Institute of New Zealand spokeswoman, Ann Crossley, said the company was thinking about introducing auctions again due to the way the market was moving.
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