Their findings were echoed by Bayleys Hamilton branch manager Mike Gascoigne. “We’ve certainly seen a little bit of a slowdown over the last six to eight weeks,” he said. Gascoigne said that for a long period of time, they would see as many as six people battling for a property at auction. Now he said it’s three people at most. “The way the market was going at the time was unsustainable, we’re not surprised by a bit of a slowdown,” he said. In fact Gascoigne said he was still seeing investors active in the market “and hindering first time buyers”.