hallie_day

Hello

We are having a shocker trying to sell our London house - brexit has well and truly screwed us and we look like losing £50-100k on what we 'should' get. It's not priced unrealistically, just the cost of the house 5 years ago, plus improvements and modest growth. Most of the people viewing are not disputing the price, just no one is really buying so we may have to reduce it significantly.
It's a very hard pill to swallow, and we cannot wait until post brexit when things are likely to settle (at least for buyer's confidence), but fortunately it seems like the Auckland market is slowing down as well. However, given the preference for 'negotiation/auction/tender', it's very hard to gauge realistically from here so I wondered if anyone has any experience of this - whether working in the industry, or anecdotal experience from friends or family trying to buy or sell? We are looking at the North Shore which appears to have dropped slightly more than other areas in Auckland according to the financial press, particularly 'premium' listings of which we will be at the lower end of...if that makes sense!

I've had a wobble this week after spending a lovely half term hanging out in the sunshine with the kids and friends, and realising that we have a pretty nice life here. For all the reasons on the 'Auckland' thread, plus the house sale (or not), I'm having sleepless nights.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Moses2013

But you aren't really losing and it's just what you think it's worth? Even if you bought for 300K and sell for 290K but lived there for 5 years, you would have spent more on rent anyway, so see it as a positive rather than a negative. And as you say prices have dropped in Auckland too, so no loss at all.

hallie_day

It's on the market for less than the identical, mirror image house across the road sold for in August 2018.
It really isn't that it isn't worth it, it's that there is so movement.
We're even comfortabley in the catchment of one of the best secondary schools in London.

Bo-Jangles

Why not just rent it out, you should be looking at renting here for at least six months to a year as minimum before jumping into buying something here anyway.

Justcol

I recently mentioned that a house was for sale in whangaparoa for less than it was for sale 6 years ago when I considered buying it .
there does seem to be a definite slowdown, it's being reported all the time, although as you say it's hard to tell due to the silly no price tactics of the agents down here.

Ex Bristol

I like Whangaparoa, used to live in Orewa. Strangly it started out as weekend baches for Auckland, that was a long time ago you can still pick up a reasonable place at Stanmore Bay etc as long as you avoid those sprayed leaky homes. In other words look for traditional Weatherboard or brick if possible.

Clappy

I have nothing to do with this website but I will point you in the direction of this one that provides estimates of house prices in Auckland. It is possible it covers other areas too but I have never checked.
https://homes.co.nz/

The website is free so you get what you pay for but for comparison purposes I checked the paid-for value that my Bank thinks my house is worth and the Bank valuation is only $3000 different to the one on that website. The site also has data on actual sale values but I am not sure how many weeks it takes for those prices to appear after a sale so can't give an opinion on whether those values are still valid.

The New Zealand house market is taking a big pause at the moment. There are fears that prices might have stopped going up and nobody will sell at a loss if they don't have to.

Bo-Jangles

Just checked our house and it places mine at $25K lower than the Capital Value (CV) that my rates is based on, so it seems that both this and the Auckland Rates data here https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/...valuation.aspx are probably a fairly a reasonable guide now that people are not paying stupid money over and above the CV.

Thorners

We're in the exact same position. Tried to sell our London place for a year. We took it off the market but hope to put it back on soon for another go. Valuation has dropped by at least £50k. We don't want to rent it out as it would be too much hassle, it's not a low maintenance property.

I know exactly what you mean about losing sleep too. We made the decision to move when we last visited 1.5 years ago and the delay is killing me. Every time I hang out with family and friends I keep thinking that I have to leave them all! Really wish we could just get going.

Sorry I have no advice but wanted to join in your vent!

hallie_day

Thanks for your replies.
I have been looking at qv.co.nz and it seems pretty accurate when I compare the properties that do have prices - certainly more than the likes of Zoopla and Rightmove here. I've also been looking at Barfoot & Thompson's sold prices which is useful.

Thorners - like you, we have a house that is too high maintenance to rent out, and we have done too much work making it lovely to let it get trashed. I also think it will be much harder to sell with tenants (I've got 'selling the dream' down to a fine art!) and there is no guarrantee things are going to get better any time soon, although a Brexit decision should help in some way. When you had yours on the market did you get any silly offers? We've had nothing, however cheeky and no viewings this weekend despite reducing the price by £25k to the price the EA said should be the lowest we would achieve. Where in London are you?

We have to move this year . We are moving for my husband to take over the family business with his brother so their parents can retire. He is committed to going at the end of September and I can wait here with the kids until Christmas so we have to sell in the summer.

Combined with a general wobble about leaving the UK this week, it all pretty shite.

hallie_day

Are the older weatherboard houses ok? I have been dubious about some of these houses as they look pretty flimsy....

Bo-Jangles

Most of them are as solid as a rock and way more sturdy than you think they would be,

hallie_day

Thanks - that increases my pool of houses!

Ex Bristol

Aucklands oldest house is Acacia cottage from 1841 it's weatherboard. The main thing I guess is to make sure the roof is sound and paint the house regularly, the paint is your waterproofer. You also need insulation as with all houses. Good luck with your search.

Justcol

When I arrived in NZ 11 years ago. I bought a brand new house. The idea was, as we knew so little about NZ building codes and standards, a new build to the latest spec was the safest option. A few years later a bought a 100 year old traditional wooden weather board villa. To my surprise I found the villa was much warmer than the new build. It took less to heat and just felt much cosier.