There has been a strong lift in the number of Auckland CBD apartments being listed for sale and no shortage of buyers willing to snap them up, with Chinese buyers to the fore.

New listings at real estate agencies City Sales and Ray White City Apartments, both specialists in the Auckland apartment market, have taken a big jump in the last few weeks, with the increase in activity most noticeable at their regularly scheduled auctions.

Damian Piggin of Ray White City Apartments said the number of apartments being auctioned by the agency had more than doubled over the last few weeks and very few remained unsold at the end of each auction.

City Sales director Martin Dunn said new listings at his agency had also increased strongly in recent weeks.

However the extra supply did not appear to be dampening buyer enthusiasm and there was strong competition between bidders when they came to auction.

At this week's regular Ray White City Apartments auction, 12 apartments were offered for sale compared to the normal five or six and 10 sold under the hammer, with another selling by negotiation later the same day.

Next's week's auction will be even bigger with 14 apartments due to be offered for sale.

Piggin said many of the vendors were investors who had owned their apartments for many years when there hadn't been much movement in prices, and they were now taking advantage of recent price rises to exit the market.

Some had been stung when they had purchased apartments through the notorious Blue Chip investment schemes and were taking the opportunity to recoup their losses, he said.

However it appears that others had purchased their apartments only recently and were giving them a quick flick.

At this week's auction a two bedroom apartment in the Federal City apartment complex on Federal St, that had been purchased for $395,000 in April sold under the hammer for $487,500, a price gain of $92,500 (23.4%) in four months (see results below).

Another that was sold for a sharp increase in price was a unit in the Zest building on Nelson St which had been purchased in January last year for $296,500 and sold under the hammer at this week's auction for $439,000.

Piggin said he did not think that new loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions and pending changes to tax rules on residential investment properties, were having any effect on the market.

"We'll have to wait and see if it does [have an impact ] but at this stage I haven't seen much effect from it," he said.

Another noticeable feature of recent auctions at both Ray White City Apartments and City Sales was a big increase in the number of Chinese people attending.

Although Chinese buyers have long been a significant part of Auckland's CBD apartment market, their participation at auctions seems to have increased sharply in the last few months.

At recent apartment auctions at both Ray White City Apartments and City Sales that were observed by interest.co.nz, it was estimated that up to 80% of those attending were Chinese people and their bidding was fiercely competitive.

See below for the full results of this week's apartment auction at Ray White White City Apartments: