Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ
Property flippers are back, at a rate not seen since before the global financial crisis.
A recent case in which an Auckland re-seller was ordered to pay $1 million to a couple he left out of pocket highlighted the perils of the practice.
Robert and Margaret Smallridge took their case against Paljeet Singh to the High Court in Auckland, where Justice Tracey Walker ruled in their favour.
The couple sold their Avondale home to Singh at the peak of the property market, in November 2021, for $1.925 million.
He intended to sell it on before the settlement date, but the market dropped. The couple eventually resold the property to another buyer for significantly less.
Singh was told to pay more than $750,000 in damages as well as contractual interest at 14 percent from 23 November, 2022 to the resale on 14 April, 2023, to a total of $99,604.48. He also had to pay a contractual interest on the net loss on resale at $268.01 per day from 15 April 2023 until it was paid.
Nick Goodall, head of research at property data firm Cotality, said the number of contemporaneous sales – where a property is sold to one person and then on to another at the same time – had lifted significantly last year after a sharp fall in 2023.
“There was a lift in these types of transactions last year, almost double 2024, and even more than what we saw through the Covid boom times.
“Perhaps this reflects the position of some vendors being more inclined to shift a property – given the decline of the market and weakness of the broader economy – rather than being able to hold on for a better price. Though this activity is still less prevalent than in the lead up to the Global Financial Crisis.”
The peak of this activity, according to Cotality’s data, was in 2007, but last year was the busiest year for it since then.
“It probably also speaks to the fact we’ve seen more activity at that lower end, which I suspect is going to be where more of the flipping activity happens as well,” Goodall said.
“When you look at the growth or lack of in prices that we’ve seen at the lower to middle end, where first-home buyers have been active, that hasn’t actually been as bad as perhaps the overall market has, which has been affected by the middle section of the market where the movers aren’t moving at the moment.”
He said people who made it work were selective in what they bought.
“You might find a property that’s been on the market for a while. It’s going to be experienced people and maybe they understand where a vendor might want a quicker sale in terms of moving on, but they can open up a different market to sell that on once they get to a certain state.”
He said it would happen less frequently when the market was soft, but there would still be buyers making it work on some properties.
But the Auckland case showed it did not always succeed.
“If the market’s not going so well, the economy’s not going so well, the buyers just aren’t there, they’re not seeing value on the property you’ve got, whatever it might be… It’s certainly not foolproof or faultless, but there’s probably always opportunities for this type of activity to continue,” Goodall said.
‘Lazy investors’
Property investment coach Steve Goodey said there were a number of “buyers’ advocates” in the market who would find properties that appeared to be a good deal and sell them on to investors with a small margin.
“I’ve done quite a few contemporaneous settlements in the last few months – four in December and two in January.
“There’s an investor market out there that doesn’t really know how cheap you can actually buy stuff at the moment, so if you’re a professional buyer and negotiator and can find equity, a discount or a high-yielding property, it’s not terribly hard to pass it on for a moderate fee.
“There are lots of lazy investors out there who don’t mind taking something off someone if the numbers make sense.”
Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make, spend and invest money.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
