Harcourts Levin Auctions 18 March 2009

What a day at Harcourts Levin - 8 auctions on the order of sale. Stu Pescini Auctioneer called up a storm - selling two under the hammer and a third ngoatiated shortly afterwards with conditional offers being presented on other properties.

The crowd was conservetively 50 - with good bidding action on most properties.

Harcourts Levin have recently installed a large screen monitor to promote the properties' benefits throughout the auction

See the action below.



Well Done to all the vendors who committed to high profile marketing, congratulations to all succesful vendors, Stu for calling 8 good auctions and for all the buyers who purchased property today.

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I was talking to an investor today who is "doing his numbers" and the simple question of whats the rate of return? came up.

As a Harcourts Levin Sales and Marketing Specialist I sell houses not rent them so I simply suggested he uses the following free calculators.

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Levin Residential Market bounces back from January low

Real Estate of NZ sales figures for the Levin Residential Housing Market at 8 March indicate a pronounced jump in Real Estate activity.

After January 2009’s dismal Levin Residential sales of 15 (although the author feels this was 13 as two sales appeared to be lifestyle properties) the recent February 2009 sales have rebounded back to 35 Residential Sales recorded for February 2009.

Zoodle the industry sponsored web portal recorded the Levin Residential January figures as:

• Median Sales Price $201,379 (+ 0.9%)
• Number of New Properties 144 (+ 56.5%)
• Number of Views 11916 (+ 20.8%)
• Number of New Properties (rental) 14 -(12.5%)
• Number of Views (rental) 1150 (+ 25.3%)
• Days to Sell (median) 120
• Property Sales 15

The February figures (from www.reinz.co.nz at 8 March 2009) can be broken down as follows:

• The maximum sale was a four bedroom property at $410,000 (45,000 above the Rateable Value or RV)
• The average sale was $205,085
• The median sale was $174,000 which indicates that the volume of sales was predominantly in the lower price ranges
• Days taken to sell ranged from a very slow 450 days to a snappy 7 days
  

Anecdotal feedback suggests that:

• The low mortgage lending rates of under 5% p.a. are encouraging buyers back into the market – having taken a number of enquiries from bargain hunters and seeing a number of properties selling below build cost the author can see construction of new dwellings being slow. Local builders comments support the theory that homeowners are choosing to renovate rather than build new dwellings.
• Lenders have pre-approved a high number of buyers who appear to be waiting for bargains or further price drops before committing to written offers
  

Mason Parker Harcourts Levin Sales and Marketing Specialist has observed 57% of properties sold in February 2009 sold within $25,000 of the September 2008 RVs – with 40% of February sales under the September 2008 RV…which meant 60% of Levin Residential Property Sales were at RV or above in February 2009.

Is this the start of a recovery or of the huge Levin Residential market clearing? Who really knows but its safe to say buyers are now in what can only be described as the most affordable residential market we are likely to have for a number of years.

With www.realestate.co.nz showing 383 properties on the market down from a recent 420+ ...this may be because of the recent spike but would likely be attributed to the very recent closure of LJHooker Levin. My commiserations to LJHooker, their staff and their clients.