A burnt-out property in South Auckland with a $1 reserve has sold for $661,000 in a hotly contested auction.
The elderly owners of the fire-damaged three-bedroom home on Roscommon Road, in Clendon Park, could not afford to rebuild it so took it to auction with a set reserve of $1.
The house attracted a record 32 registered bidders when it was called at Ray White Manukau’s auction rooms on Tuesday.
The auction opened at $1.50 before jumping up swiftly to $150,000 and then $340,000.
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Bidding then slowed with the price going up in increments of about $20,000 until it hit the half-a-million-dollar mark when smaller bids of between $1000 and $2000 were made.
Only a phone bidder and one in-person bidder remained once it hit $550,000 and it eventually sold under the hammer for $661,000 to an investor.
The property had an RV of $860,000 with the 607sqm land valued at $840,000 alone.
Ray White Manukau co-owner Tom Rawson said it was the most registrations for bidders they had ever had for an auction and a significant number of bids.
“We haven’t had an auction like that since 2021 probably," he said.
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“A third of them got the chance to bid. There are the opportune ones there thinking if it goes to $10,000 or $5000 or $5, they better be registered – but it found the market level which is the confidence people can have in the auctions.”
The price had surpassed Rawson’s own expectations as he had thought it would sell for around the mid-$500,000s.
The elderly owners were very happy with the result, he said. “It frees them up now to move on with their plans.”
He believed the large amount of interest was due to buyers knowing that the owners were committed to selling and not time-wasters.
“I think buyers were encouraged that their motivation was openly expressed. There were investors, builders, there were people who wanted to rebuild the house – obviously that wasn’t really a possibility.”
A fire-damaged home on Waipapa Crescent, in Otara, Auckland, sold under the hammer for $520,000. Photo / Supplied
Rawson said earlier this month that the sellers had decided to let the market decide what the property was worth in its current “as is” condition.
The house was uninsured when it burnt down.
“I would say it’s not for the faint-hearted, but it is for those that can see opportunity and create opportunities and someone who buys this will come in with a plan.”
Ray White Manukau is also marketing a block of three commercial shops on the corner of Gloucester Road and Browns Road, in Manurewa, which was also struck by fire, with smoke and water damage, and needs a new owner to either repair, expand and re-lease or completely rebuild it.
And a canny investor snapped up a fire-damaged property on Waipapa Crescent, in Otara, for $520,000 at auction earlier this year.
The 673sqm section had two houses and a separate garage, but the large house had been destroyed by a fire and was uninhabitable. The smaller three-bedroom home had existing tenants who wanted to stay on.
There were nine registered bidders interested in the property. The auction opened at $500,000 before selling for $520,000 to someone who had the skills to do it up.
In Hamilton, a 1920s character home on Rifle Range Road, in Dinsdale, which was damaged in two separate fires, sold in a mortgagee auction this month for $411,000 after attracting eight bidders and 52 bids.
This fire-damaged character home on Rifle Range Road, in Dinsdale, Waikato, sold for $411,000 after attracting 52 bids. Photo / Supplied
Harcourts listing agent David Forster told OneRoof the property was first damaged in January 2021 and caught fire again in its derelict state at the end of last year.
The photos show a number of windows either missing or boarded up, doors stacked up the main entrance and in front of a blackened and sometimes non-existence exterior.
A separate double garage at the back of the section undamaged by the fire remains standing.
Forster said the 625sqm freehold corner site would most likely attract developers who could build a duplex or possibly even subdivide it into three smaller freehold sites.
“It would lend itself to a replacement single dwelling being put there, but realistically the most value is in the land as a development site.”
While a lot of the buyers often have the perception that they are going to get a bargain, especially as it is being marketed as both a mortgage and fire sale, he said this wasn’t always the reality.
“I’ve been doing mortgagee sales for a long time and I reassure people that the banks have got the responsibility to sell it for as much as possible.”
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