Tonight on Close Up ` is it buyer or seller beware? What are auctions doing to the property market? It's the market setting the price, ie: the buyers. But also worried about the possibility that you will get it and pay too much for it. What the leader of 75 million Anglicans thinks about Prince Charles as the next head of the Church. And why real men are ballet dancers. We're doing a lot of lifting, a lot of jumping. We have to have speed, agility, stamina, attack. I think it's very masculine. Due to the live nature of Close Up, captions for some items may be incomplete. ONE News captions by Conor Whitten and June Yeow. Close Up captions by Virginia Philp and Sam Bradford. Buying or selling a house? Chances are you're being pushed to do it by auction these days. And going under the hammer, where you don't know the price, is almost as hot as the overheated property market itself. But the agents are the experts, aren't they? So why don't they put their money where their mouths are and put a price on that three-beddy with indoor-outdoor flow? Michael Holland takes a look. At 91, she does too. At 491,000. For real estate rookies Tim and Fiona, it ends with bubbles. We have paid $520,000 for a two-bedroom unit in Waterview. Quite relieved, I think. Definitely feeling pretty happy now. The soon-to-be newlyweds' entry into the heated Auckland property market... Second call. Done. Bid! 70 there. 80 here down the front, if you have. Yeah, that caught them out, didn't it? ...was not without its anxious moments. $475,000. At $476,000 now. Did you dare to turn round and stare down your opposition? I did. (LAUGHS) I don't think i was frowning. I think I might have had the sort of... (LAUGHS) desperate look on my face. 'Stop, stop!' (LAUGHS) Not stopping, though, is the rise and rise of auctions as a tool for buying and selling property. Very in vogue, if you like. It's the market setting the price. First call. 20, if you like. $815,000 the bid! You are worried about the possibility that you won't get it, but also worried about the possibility that you will get it and pay too much for it. It's not just us telling the vendors what the price is; it's the purchasers telling the vendor what the price is. I think we were willing to pay a lot more than it was worth, to be honest, because we were in love with it. Next on the block, and stylish it is. The vendor's more than happy they chose to sell by auction for the first time. What would you have taken? The reserve was set at 2.7. And you got? 2.9. That's $200,000 you didn't expect. No. That's right. There is certainly are great prices out there at the moment. There is good action in the market place. Tim Carter of Barfoot & Thompson says the last five years has seen unprecedented vendor demand for auctions. Auctions were about 5% to 12% of the total controlled listings. These days its over 50%, so it's grown hugely in those years. People are a lot more aware of how auctions work. The fact we have Trade Me operating out there now, even on just your standard items people are buying, people are learning the jargon, reserve prices, starting bid, all those sorts of things. But not everyone's sold. In West Auckland, Glover Real Estate refuses to take properties to auction, opting instead to put a price on all its listings. 40 houses, all prices on them, and you can buy anything from a little cottage for $283, or you can buy a house for $1.275. You'll let them go rather than put their house to auction? Yep. We just don't believe in it whatsoever. You do put your reputation on the line and you put your knowledge on the line as well, and you have to prove to the owners why you have come up with the price. Now we can come up with prices, valuers can come up with prices ` mainly historical ` and in a rising market, who really knows that price is until we find out on the day? There are a couple of risks pricing in this market place being so unpredictable. You could price too high, price yourself out of the market. People are only judging your property on price rather than what it might offer them, and there is also the case where you might under price it, and you have a situation where a buyer sees your price and thinks, 'That's what I don't have to pay. How much cheaper can I get it for?' Gosh, what did I want? I hoped for $600,000. I thought I would go to about $590,000, and I got $626,000, so I'm delighted. Same auction, the next lot up, and another sale. Both sides of the deal are satisfied. On this hour, on this day, you got the best possible price? I think we got a good market price for the house, yes. Did you steal it? No. Nothing is a steal in this market. We've got an 85% success rate with auctions as opposed to just normal sole agency situations, which is around the 60% mark. So 8.5 out of 10 auctions that we put up sell. Although, to be fair, not all the sales are under the hammer. Agents acknowledged a reasonable proportion are sealed days or weeks after the property failed to meet reserve. Well, I've just spent the last couple of hours at this auction for properties in the Howick, Bucklands Beach and Botany areas of Auckland. Price range $450,000 to around $850,000. It would be a stretch to describe the bidding as feverish ` more halting, even subdued. Out of the 18 properties up for grabs, seven were sold, six passed in, no bids on two, two sold prior to the auction and one withdrawn. That makes a strike rate of exactly 50%. Going, going! Sold! Bloody-minded. What do you mean bloody-minded? I'm going to have this at any price. > We had our maximum, and We wouldn't have gone over that. I don't think we got to that point today. Certainly you eye up your competition when you walk into the room, thinking, 'Can I pay more than that person?' Definitely a competitive environment. There is always a little bit of pressure whether you are buying at auction or out of auction. It's a huge decision that is being made. So there's always going to be pressure in taking those decisions. Pressure, or competition as they'd prefer us to say, that netted these vendors an extra 200 K... You've got enough money to share a hamburger on the way home? More than that. (LAUGHS) We are very excited about it. ...and got Tim and Fiona into a market that's fast running away from many others like them. Pretty good. Quite elated. Still feel my heart beating quite quickly. Joining me now is Helen O'Sullivan, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute of NZ. ARE AUCTIONS SO FLASH WE SHOULD ALL BE DOING IT? IT DEPENDS ON THE PROPERTY. IN A SELLER'S MARKET, YES. IN A SITAUTION WHERE A MARKET HAS A LIMITED NUMBER OF BUYERS, IT MAY NOT BE SO GOOD. ONE GUY WAS SAYING, WE PUT OUR MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTH IS, GIVE YOU A PRICE. DO WE PAY REAL ESTATE AGENTS FOR THEIR KNOWLEDGE? WHAT THE REAL ESTATE AGENT CAN'T KNOW IS HOW FAR BIDDERS WILL GO. YOU'VE GOT A SITUATION WHERE FOUR OR FIVE PEOPLE ARE INITERESTED, YOUR JOB IS TO GET THE BEST PRICE. IS THERE ANY WAY OF KNOWING WHETHER YOU GET A BETTER PRICE AT AUCTION THAN LISTING? WE HAVE DONE SOME ANALYSIS OF THE DATA, AND WE HAVE CERTAINLY IN AUCKLAND FOUND THAT PRICE AT AUCTION IS BETTER. IS THE SPEED A FACTOR IN AUCTIONS TOO? IF YOU'VE GOT A PROPERTY THAT'S GOT GOOD, BROAD APPEAL, IT'S GOOD IF YOU GET THEM ALL IN A ROOM. IS IT CHEAPER TO SELL AT AUCTION OR LISTING? THE MARKETING SPEND IS AT THE VENDOR'S DISCRETION. THE COMMISSION YOU PAY IS THE SAME WHETHER AUCTION OR SOLE LISTING. THERE'S REGIONAL TRENDS HERE. AUCTIONS HOT IN AUCKLAND. YES, AND THAT'S PARTLY TO DO WITH THE CULTURE OF THE MARKET. IN WELLINGTON,NOT SUCH A SELLER'S MARKET. BUT IT IS ALSO THAT WTGN HAS FAVOURED TENDORS. A CULTURE DIFFERENCE. A DIFFERENT CULTURE IN AUCKLAND, MARK. DO PEOPLE GO TO AUCTIONS FOR PARTICULAR REASON WE SEE THEM ACROSS THE BOARD. WHAT IF THE PROPERTY DOESN'T SELL AT ACUTION? IN TERMS OF SETTING YOUR RESERVE PRICE, THERE WILL OFTEN BE A NEGOTIATION AFTERWARDS. DO I STILL PAY A FEE FOR THAT AUCTION? SO I DON'T HAVE TO PAY IF IT DOESN'T SELL. YOU WILL PAY THE FEE TO THE AUCTIONEER, BUT NOT TO THE REAL ESTATE AGENT IF YOU DON'T SELL. WHAT WOULD STOP ME FROM DOING IT MYSELF? NOTHING WOULD STOP YOU, BUT YOU HAVE TO HAVE A LICENSED AUCTIONEER. AN AUCTION IS NOT JUST THE AUCTIONEER, IT IS AROUND THE CAMPAIGN, SO IF YOU'RE READY TO CONDUCT PEOPLE AROUND YOUR HOUSE AND HEAR THEM CRITICISE IT WHAT'S IN IT FOR A BUYER, WHO RISKS GETTING CARRIED AWAY? THE BONUS IS IN THE TRANSPARENCY FOR THE BUYERS. YOU CAN STARE DAGGERS AT THAT. THANKS. We'd like to hear your views. Go to our website, or email us at closeup@tvnz.co.nz And we're on Facebook too: facebook.com/closeup Coming up ` the Archbishop of Canterbury on what the Church means today. Some people come to church expecting to be made to feel good. Church is a place that ought to make you feel uncomfortable at times. Plus ` why real men and tutus do mix. The US presidency isn't the only big job up for grabs this month. Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, steps down and a new spiritual leader of the world's 75 million Anglicans will be appointed. It's an appointment that is vetted by the British Prime Minister and needs the final approval of the Queen ` not that Dr Williams sees that as a problem. I think I prefer to say I'm a constitutional creation. There's a role for the Archbishop of Canterbury in the British system. And I think there's a very clear sense that it would be pretty eccentric for any prime minister to go against the recommendation of the Church, and it hasn't happened for ages. Given the system as it is, would you have an issue with Prince Charles being the head of the Anglican Church? If he's the monarch of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, well, he's the supreme governor of the Church of England, and that's a constitutional fact. I have no problem. But some would say a man who has been divorced is not the right person to lead the Church. I don't think people get to be monarchs just because they've got a certain percentage in their morality examination. Henry VIII famously, who got us going as an independent unit, had a bit of a history in that respect. It's just a constitutional fact. So, what does your job really mean these days? What does it mean to be the Archbishop of Canterbury? In a way, you're expected to be a bit of a figurehead, a spokesperson for the Christian presence, even sometimes the religious presence. There's all that, and then there's the global dimension, which is trying to keep this sometimes rather plural and quarrelsome family more or less at the same table. And those are two pretty big jobs in themselves. But on top of that, of course, there's what I think of as the absolutely rock-bottom basic stuff, which is that I'm the chief pastor of an area of East Kent. You have a day job? I have a day job, yes. (CHUCKLES) Which raises the question ` why would you give that up? Career-wise ` if I can put it again like that ` within the Church you are there at the very top. You can exert influence in things you think are important. Why would you walk away from that? I think 10 years is probably a sensible amount of time, realistically. If you can feel yourself, hmm, running on the empty tank; if you can feel yourself pushing yourself towards doing the job, that's not a good situation to be in. I don't think I'm quite there yet, but I want to stop before I get there. But before you run out of steam, there must be things you want to do. Now, women bishops, for instance. I'm still hoping and praying to see it through before I go at the end of the year. In about 10 days' time, we'll be meeting to discuss that and make the final decision on it. If it doesn't happen? If it doesn't happen, I think we're looking at a lot of wasted time. We're looking at a lot of internal housekeeping and squabbling over the next five or more years. Because it'll be five years before we can really bring any legislation back. We have a woman bishop, of course, in Christchurch. Indeed. A very old friend of mine. It seems she's come under a fair bit of flak over the cathedral. Do you think that cathedral should be rebuilt as it was? I think that's a matter for Christchurch to decide. But if, say for instance, St Paul's was destroyed in an earthquake, Anglicans at home would be insistent it is rebuilt, wouldn't they? Well, I think they'd have an argument about it. They would have an argument about priorities. And that's the argument you're going to have to have, I think, in Christchurch. The priority, the overriding one, is 'What's going to make this community work better in the middle to long term?' The other pressing issue, of course, is the same-sex marriage within the church, the role of the gay community within the church. Is there a danger, though, that that issue is going to tear ` and I think it will ` tear the church apart? The surprising thing, actually, is that it hasn't so far. We have argued bitterly over this in last few years, and I don't underrate the bitterness, and a lot of it has landed on my desk. On the other hand, we are still working together. We've worked out a number of really quite substantial policy initiatives together. I think that's a tribute to the willingness of Anglicans to stay together. Is the Church ` in some ways, people look at churches as old-fashioned, 'their days are gone, we're past it'; Do you believe that? Or do you fear that? I don't think I'd be in this job, or any job in the Church, if I believed that. I think modern people look to ` whatever they may say sometimes ` what they look to the Church for isn't so much a set of snap answers. They look for a bit of honesty in confronting the questions. Is there too much focus on entertainment in church these days? Sometimes there is, frankly, yes. I think some people come to church expecting to be made to feel good, and they also make the mistake of assuming if young people turn up they just want to made to feel good. Whereas church is a place that ought to make you feel uncomfortable sometimes. It ought to make you feel, 'Am I being honest? Am I being generous? Am I being loving?' And because for most of us human beings, the answer to all of those is 'No' a lot of the time, it's going to be uncomfortable. Well, we wish you a comfortable journey on to the next step in life. Not entirely, I hope. Thank you. And you can watch the full 20-minute interview on our website: www.tvnz.co.nz Here's something to think about. Last night's US election made history in more ways than you think. 28m political comments were posted on social media sites yesterday. So, five things you need to know about the new ways of communicating in this election. This is now the most-tweeted photograph in history, taking just 22 minutes to surpass a Justin Bieber snapshot. Retweeted 700,000 times and liked by more than 3.2m Facebook users since Obamas's victory. The Don ` he lost it big-time last night on Twitter. Donald Trump said the election was a sham, the world was laughing at America ` no, not at his hair, at America! He even called for a revolution. But the most divisive tweets have now been removed. Was Diane Sawyer hammered during the election coverage? That's the speculation on Twitter after her stumbling election night performance. See what you make of it. You know the Governor also has lucky milkshake. Our music, we need our music. President Obama's campaign put an exclamation point after 'forward'. When did they decide that was the right message for them? Yeah. Well, forget traditional pundits, blogger Nate Silver is the most successful election predictor ever. He's a statistician and a sabremetrician ` whatever that means. But he picked all 50 states for this election. Sales for his book, Why Most Predictions Fail (But Some Don't) have beaten predictions and gone up 800%. And election pictures are getting the meme treatment. In one, Hilary Clinton looks to 2016, Mitt Romney's seen trolling the Internet looking for advice, but the final word goes to Big Bird. Coming up ` why, when it comes to masculinity, some think ballet dancers have it all over rugby players. I'm trying hard to think of any kind of physical activity that could be as tough. Ballet and blokes. Yes, I can hear the titters already, and I guess in our rugby-obsessed culture, the two are not always seen as the perfect fit. But when it comes to fit, when it comes to physicality, make no mistake ` ballet dancers would give our rugby heroes a run for their money. If you have any doubts, check out the NZ Ballet Company's latest production, Giselle. It's winning rave reviews, and, as Matt McLean discovered, it's also showcasing some of our world-class male dancers. Whenua... We're a country of hard knocks,... ALL CHANT: Ka mate, ka mate! Ka ora! ...where, on the rugby field, men are born. CLASSICAL PIANO MUSIC PLAYS But now it's on the dance floor that testosterone is everywhere. It's really changed from being sort of like a pansy, sort of, weak thing to something strong. You know, you've gotta be a man to do this. Welcome to the changing face of ballet. It's very athletic. And it's, I think, appealing to the average bloke as well. We're doing a lot of lifting, a lot of jumping. We have to have speed, agility, stamina, attack. I think it's very masculine. I'm trying hard to think of any kind of physical activity that could be as tough, as hard as ballet is. Your pinwheel was good today. It's midday in the ballet studios, and rehearsals for the company's massive production of Giselle are in full swing. So, did we sort out that...? (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) I think so. To do a full evening piece or a full-length ballet that's brand new. When it's that big, it's exciting but challenging at the same time. Ethan would know. He's a world-famous ballet dancer who starred in the movie Centre Stage back in 2000. Ethan agrees, though, that the movie has helped inspire an entire generation of male ballet dancers, like Dimitri Kleioris. He's a phenomenal dancer and a phenomenal director and someone that I'm really proud to call my boss. Do you think more and more guys are getting involved in the ballet as the years go on? Yeah. I feel like it's become a lot more socially acceptable, the general population to understand what it is that we do, that it is a full-time job and that it takes a lot of dedication and hard work. It's certainly not easy, though, for young boys in NZ to put their hand up to be a ballet dancer. Billy Elliot knew it. And so did Andrew Bowman. In schools and so forth, in ballet schools, there were very very few boys. So it was hard. It was hard, sort of, looking for a male person to look up to. At that time when I was growing up when you're a ballet boy, you're not the popular guy at school. Now, though, we're known around the world for our ballet blokes. Andrew has danced internationally from Denmark to London to Germany. So are we making a name for ourselves overseas then as ballet dancers? > I think the name's already been made. I think my generation and the generations coming are just fulfilling the legacy. We're also attracting men from around the world quick to work down under. Hopefully, someone will see some inspiration in me being here. I'm, at the same time, getting inspired by being here. Johan is a choreographer and a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London. But he's been blown away by the calibre here. NZ might be far away, but what you find here is just as good as any company I've been to. And don't even suggest that the lads he's working with here are lacking masculinity. And plus we're being surrounded by pretty good-looking women all day. (CHUCKLES) It's not that bad, is it? Not bad at all. Because behind the tutus and the pirouettes are a bunch of blokes just doing what they love. It is getting easier. So I'm enthusiastic about that. Until the day we have everybody just not even questioning why a man would be in the profession, we've just gotta keep doing what we're doing and share the strength and the masculinity of our art form. That's NZ Close Up. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air.