# One man;s battle to buy a house in Auckland



## anski (Aug 17, 2008)

I keep reading the housing market has picked up in Auckland & that there a fewer listings for buyers to pick from but on reading the story about this man's efforts to buy I am amazed.

I know some friends tried unsuccessfully to buy at auctions when houses kept escalating above their budget, but they got there in the end by negotiating with a private seller-although they did not buy the perfect house & they did go over budget but they became so frustrated after 11 months they just went for it.



> A four-month battle through Auckland's real estate auction rooms stretched Gareth Berry's budget from $400,000 to $880,000 before he finally landed his first family home.
> 
> Mr Berry, a 35-year-old technology entrepreneur, was spurred by the birth of his second child to visit more than 200 open homes and bid on dozens of houses, wading through a crazy housing market that has surged to record highs.
> 
> "It's nuts out there, and it's not not going to change anytime soon," Mr Berry said. "I lost my rag a little bit. Didn't 'lose it' lose it - but at two of the auctions I missed out on, I stormed out in frustration."


You can read the rest of the story here if you are interested.

Four-month battle to find a home - Property - NZ Herald News

How are you finding the situation if you are house hunting. It would be interesting to hear if others are in the same boat. What will it take for the market to cool down?


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## topcat83 (Apr 16, 2009)

anski said:


> I keep reading the housing market has picked up in Auckland & that there a fewer listings for buyers to pick from but on reading the story about this man's efforts to buy I am amazed.
> 
> I know some friends tried unsuccessfully to buy at auctions when houses kept escalating above their budget, but they got there in the end by negotiating with a private seller-although they did not buy the perfect house & they did go over budget but they became so frustrated after 11 months they just went for it.
> 
> ...


Hi Anski - I think we both must be insomniacs tonight.

I'm wondering if this situation is jut in selected central suburbs of Auckland - I'm sure there aren't such high price rises in the suburbs. I haven't heard of them in Howick, for example.

And where we are, we still have to see a move in the housing market. House and land prices in Miranda are still very deflated. And I still have a section to sell


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## anski (Aug 17, 2008)

OMG neither of us sleeping must be something be something in the air.

I have been keeping a watch on prices because we are intending to put our house up for sale later this year & hopefully move to Hawkes Bay.

There has not been as much for sale in my area (Mission Bay) as normally would be apart from either 1-2 bedrooms apartments or 4 bed luxury homes for $1,500,000 plus. So just the bottom & top of the market. There is a 2 bed unit with 1 bathroom & single garage on the market for $720,000 (which is just ridiculous) 

But really nothing much in between except for some dubious built properties.

I suspect some at the top end are selling because they are over committed & many adverts say downsizing.

In my street there was a 4 bedroom scruffy home ex rental sold in 2007 for $520,000 resold last September for $700,000 & then had a total makeover internally & was put up for auction in January with expectations of $1 million plus passed in at auction but sold later for $920,000 & it only had a single garage at street level about 50 metres from front door.

Don't despair over your block, land will always be desirable in the long run as Auckland's population increases so will housing demand continue to increase & like Sydney; people will move further out for more space & affordability.

You can always grow veggies on it.


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## Song_Si (Jun 11, 2010)

a long time ago now, 2004 when I was last in the house-buying market (Wellington) I found the most frustrating part was bidding for houses being sold through a tender process - it was the 'in' way to sell houses at the time and maybe peculiar to Wellington but auctions never seemed to take off there. Putting in a tender was a long process, paying for an independent house check (leaky buildings), council reports etc then the worst part - having made a binding offer, looking at other houses in the interim became pointless as couldn't have 'live' bids running at the same time, maybe a three-week wait to find out I'd been unsuccessful. 

At the time I had two work colleagues also trying to buy, one in same area/price range as me which lead to some comical situations at work as we'd meet at an open home then potentially bid against each other on same property. 

Have little/no faith or trust in reals estate agents; the house I did eventually buy was another frustration; it was listed for sale, I made an offer at their asking price and thought things would be easy from there, house sold/bought. But no, they then decided to cancel that sale process and start again at closed tender hoping to get a higher price. I had a little sulk, threw my toys about, and went ahead with an offer $14,000 below what I'd previously offered. And won. Spoke to the vendor afterwards they had been talked into it by the agent (hoping for higher commission). Then on settlement/possession day we couldn't get keys, the agent had gone on holiday, took till 4pm till her company managed to locate a spare set.

It can be a long and tortuous process. Worse when i went to sell - but that's another story!


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## topcat83 (Apr 16, 2009)

anski said:


> ....Don't despair over your block, land will always be desirable in the long run as Auckland's population increases so will housing demand continue to increase & like Sydney; people will move further out for more space & affordability.
> 
> You can always grow veggies on it....


...or a couple more alpacas


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## topcat83 (Apr 16, 2009)

Song_Si said:


> a long time ago now, 2004 when I was last in the house-buying market (Wellington) I found the most frustrating part was bidding for houses being sold through a tender process - it was the 'in' way to sell houses at the time and maybe peculiar to Wellington but auctions never seemed to take off there. Putting in a tender was a long process, paying for an independent house check (leaky buildings), council reports etc then the worst part - having made a binding offer, looking at other houses in the interim became pointless as couldn't have 'live' bids running at the same time, maybe a three-week wait to find out I'd been unsuccessful.
> 
> At the time I had two work colleagues also trying to buy, one in same area/price range as me which lead to some comical situations at work as we'd meet at an open home then potentially bid against each other on same property.
> 
> ...


My pet hate is 'tender' - it's gambling at it's worse. At least on a Trademe auction you know that you'll just pay slightly over the second highest bidder. Get it wrong with tenders and you could be paying waaay over - and how would you know?

I also don't like auctions. We bought my son't house through the auction process (Ray White) and as novices to the game I thought there were some extremely dodgy practices going on. We did buy it, and we don't seem to have had any issues, but I still feel uneasy about what happened.


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## anski (Aug 17, 2008)

topcat83 said:


> My pet hate is 'tender' - it's gambling at it's worse. At least on a Trademe auction you know that you'll just pay slightly over the second highest bidder. Get it wrong with tenders and you could be paying waaay over - and how would you know?
> 
> I also don't like auctions. We bought my son't house through the auction process (Ray White) and as novices to the game I thought there were some extremely dodgy practices going on. We did buy it, and we don't seem to have had any issues, but I still feel uneasy about what happened.


Trouble with auctions is that you are often up against others & no one likes to be the loser, so often prices go above what one would pay if you had the time to think rationally rather than on the spot.

At the moment in my area there is hardly anything for sale with a price tag, it's all Auctions, or Price By Negotiation & either way is hard if you are new to the area or the system.


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## pennybarn (Feb 27, 2011)

Can anyone tell me what sort of price you would expect to pay for a building plot in Auckland ? and are there lots and lots of planning rules and regs like here in the uk? Thanks in advance


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## anski (Aug 17, 2008)

pennybarn said:


> Can anyone tell me what sort of price you would expect to pay for a building plot in Auckland ? and are there lots and lots of planning rules and regs like here in the uk? Thanks in advance



Depends where you want to live. In Mission Bay there is hardly any vacant land & the odd block would be $550,000 & up. Many people wanting to live in the area & build buy an older house & knock it down replacing it with another.
Do a search on Trademe in Real Estate looking for Sections & that will give you a better idea.

Some builders do house & land packages do a Google search for New home Auckland to see a long list of building companies..

For council requirements digest this 
Building, property and consents


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