Auckland speculators flipping homes on same day of purchase
"If you can swing a property deal once a week and make 20 or 30 grand, why would you not do that?"
Auckland property speculators are on-selling homes on the same day of purchase for huge profits, sometimes without even setting foot inside.
Incredibly, one Auckland house was sold three times in a single day with its value surging by nearly $80,000 in less than 24 hours.
Other astute buyers have "flipped" their new purchases for instant profits worth tens of thousands of dollars, with one speculator pocketing $100,000 the same day they bought and sold a Papatoetoe house.
New data released exclusively to the Weekend Herald by free property valuation website homes.co.nz identifies about 30 properties that were re-sold on the same day of purchase in the last 17 months - often by ruthless investors chasing quick bucks.
However the Weekend Herald has identified other same-day transactions and the actual number is likely to be higher.
With the average Auckland house price now tipping $1 million, frenzied property speculation is helping drive up prices and locking thousands of Auckland families out of home ownership.
But one investor who buys and sells Auckland properties - sometimes on the same day - has defended the practice, labelling it "easy money" in a rising market.
"If you can swing a property deal once a week and make 20 or 30 grand, why would you not do that?" said seasoned Tauranga-based investor Ian Stevenson.
"Big money is chasing good profit here but it's the market's rise that's driving it because they're not fixing the Auckland problem."
Stevenson, who said he declared all his profits and paid tax, knew of speculators who had realty agents scouring Auckland for suitable homes to buy and sell for immediate financial returns.
Back-to-back buy and sell agreements let investors "take the cash", often without any improvement work being done.
"We're just opportunistic. It's about making money.
"Being merciless here, and many are doing it, the market is about speculation."
Stevenson's candid comments will rile beleaguered house-hunters trying to scrape together deposits while prices continue to soar.