First-home buyers get on Auckland property ladder with pre-auction offer

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PHOTO: The couple said most of the houses they looked at sold by auction and were over their budget. Photo credit: Supplied.

After missing out on several auctions, an Auckland couple says a pre-auction offer is what got them out of renting and into their first home.

Although the property market is “overwhelming” for first-home buyers, they put their success down to knuckling down on saving, being prepared to compromise, and a helpful team.

It comes as the rate of house price growth makes it tough for Kiwis to get onto the property ladder. July REINZ data shows the national median selling price is $826,000, up 25.2 percent year-on-year. The national median price first-home buyer paid in June 2021 was $685,275 – around $150,000 more than the same time last year, CoreLogic data shows.

Having got their finance pre-approved by a broker in March, Kirti, who works in the IT industry and his wife, a beauty therapist, had their sights set on buying a first-home in Mt Roskill where they’d lived for three years.