- Jay Singh sold a four-bedroom house in Papakura for $1.09m from overseas on New Year’s Day.
- Charlie Brothers sold a two-bedroom apartment in Manukau for $265,000 on Christmas Eve.
- Auckland’s housing market is active, with increased buyer interest and pre-auction offers, but not at 2021 levels.
A South Auckland real estate agent was busy negotiating a house sale from Istanbul and Guangzhou airports on New Year’s Day, an auspicious start for the housing market in 2026.
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Ray White Manukau agent Jay Singh told OneRoof that he brokered the deal for a stylish four-bedroom house on Nola Dawn Avenue, in Papakura, at the tail end of his Christmas break.
“The phone just started blowing up after 30 hours of travel. We started organising viewings, and a client of mine who lived up the road wanted his friend to live nearby.
“They saw it New Year’s eve. We went back and forth negotiating for two days, and when I landed in Guangzhou 12 hours later, I had the iPad with me, and we sent the paperwork off, and we got it signed.
“We sold it for $1.09m, more than a similar house with one more bedroom had got back in November. It’s a good indicator to start the year. Twelve people went through the property during that holiday week. A lot of people wanted to start the year having secured a property.”
A two-bedroom apartment in Manukau was snapped up for $265,000 on Christmas Eve. Photo / Supplied
Singh’s colleague Charlie Brothers also enjoyed some early success. He listed a two-bedroom apartment in M Central, on Putney Way, in Manukau, on Christmas Eve and sold it that same night to an investor for $265,000.
Brothers had tried to sell the property earlier in the year – at one point asking $299,000 – but by Christmas, the vendor’s circumstances had changed, and she was desperate to offload the property.
“We sent a text to everybody on our database on Christmas Eve saying it’s been put to auction [on January 28] and it must be sold on the day. A buyer came forward, we negotiated the highest offer, and it sold that night.”
He added: “These apartments don’t sell quickly; they are a struggle.”
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Records show the property last sold for $287,000, when the block was built in 2025.
Auckland agents that OneRoof spoke to said the market was noticeably fizzing, with many reporting crowded open homes and an uptick in pre-auction offers. Ray White is hosting two mega auctions in the next few weeks, with around 140 properties on the block.
In Manukau, where 60 properties are slated for sale on January 28, agency co-owner Tom Rawson said that five already had good enough pre-auction offers to be sold now.
“Interest rates coming down got people thinking, ‘If I’m gonna buy, now is a good time – money is not gonna get too much cheaper’,” Rawson said, noting that properties had already had good numbers of buyers through open homes.
In Auckland City, Ray White Epsom co-owner Nick Lyus reported 82 groups through the first open home of a smartly-renovated three-bedroom house at 2A Whites Way, in Ellerslie, which has an RV of $1.35m. Five days later, it had been seen by 162 groups.
2A Whites Way, in Ellerslie, attracted 82 groups at its first open home. Photo / Supplied
“It is the busiest campaign I’ve had in 16 years of selling.”
He said that “people are prepared to stand and fight” for properties like the one he is selling.
“For the last two years, [the market] has been flat, but over Christmas people went, ‘OK, let’s get into it’.”
Ray White Jerry Chen told OneRoof that a renovated bungalow he is selling at 50 Calgary Street, Mount Eden, was seen by 120 groups of buyers in its first weekend on the market.
“Any time there’s a really well-done house, it just attracts lots of people,” Chen said. The four-bedroom house, which has an RV of $2.025m, is pulling in buyers who have been waiting for the perfect place to come up.
He anticipates that properties that failed to sell in the past couple of years will be coming back on the market now because the market is healthier. “But I don’t think we’ll see a market like 2021 for a long time. It was not sustainable and was really bad for everyone.”
Ray White agent Jerry Chen says his listing at 50 Calgary Street, in Mount Eden, is pulling in buyers. Photo / Supplied
On the North Shore, Ray White agent Kris Cunningham said there had been a lot of buyer interest in the 80-odd properties the agency is bringing to auction on February 3, with some attracting strong pre-auction offers.
“You have to pay a good price if you want to take a property off the market,” he said, adding that in the past six months, he has had five properties pulled from auction by early offers.
However, he wasn’t seeing 2021-levels of FOMO. Only top-quality homes were being fought over now, whereas back then, 90% of places were selling quickly.
Ray White Mairangi Bay co-owner Shane Coote agreed: “For high-quality stock, there’s more demand than supply. But we think there could be a very quick shift the other way in a month when a mass of stock is listed.
“The reason why we do these events now, rather than later, is that stock is low but buyer enquiry is really high. It’s a myth that you can’t sell your house until February because no one is here in January. There has been a huge amount of enquiry in January – people have more time.
“Buyer confidence was good at the tail end of last year, and that’s how this year has started.”
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