Barfoot & Thompson sold 35% of properties under the hammer at three out of four of the agency's auctions monitored by interest.co.nz in the last week.

Clearance rates of just over a third were achieved at the company's main auctions on the North Shore, at Manukau and at the Friday morning auction at Shortland St in the CBD.

The Wednesday afternoon auction in the CBD achieved a clearance rate of 25% (see table below).

A noticeable feature at several of this week's auctions was a higher number of properties being postponed or withdrawn from sale after the Order of Sale had been published but before the auction commenced.

However there also appeared to be a higher than normal number of properties that were sold as a result of the private negotiations that occurred in the auction room immediately after the properties were passed in.

That suggests some vendors may be starting to accept that the market has softened recently and are prepared to be more realistic in their price expectations.

The full results of all four Barfoot & Thompson auctions monitored by interest.co.nz, with prices of the properties that sold and details of those that did not, can be found on our Auction/Sales Results page.

Results of Selected Barfoot & Thompson Auctions Auction details Auctioned Sold* Passed in No bids Manukau Sports Bowl, 22 November 37 13 24 13 Shortland St, CBD, 23 November 52 13 39 20 Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, 24 November 49 17 32 19 Shortland St CBD , 25 November 17 6 11 7

*Sold means sold under the hammer.