A four-bedroom luxury villa in Karaka, on the southern fringes of Auckland, sold at auction on Tuesday for $3 million – $1.025m above what it sold for just two years ago.
The renovated home, which sits on 2.14ha on Ellett Road, was on the market for just two days before a pre-auction offer brought the sale forward. With no other bids, the property sold for that sum.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Scott McElhinney, who marketed the property, told OneRoof: “I had a lot of people really disappointed they missed out. These properties do not come up as often as we need, they are quite tightly held, so when they do come up, they move fast,”
McElhinney said he had a dozen or so buyers looking for quality homes in his patch, some of whom were city folks moving out to the country for space and privacy while others were locals looking to upgrade.
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The sale comes as the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand reported that nationwide lifestyle property sales in the three months to the end of April were 36.1% down on the same quarter last year. Auckland had a big drop in the number of properties sold, although the region's median price had a "solid lift" from March's $1.89m.
McElhinney said one of the appeals of Karaka was its proximity to the motorway and good schools.
The house on 2.14 hectares is close to schools and amenities, so was in big demand for lifestyle buyers. Photo / Supplied
He sold the house to the vendors in 2020 and before the sale he told OneRoof that the property had received an amazing reaction back then.
Ellett Road is considered a premium location and the immaculately presented villa came with a pool, garaging, a studio annex and a large farm shed and had good land for horses.
In their two years on the property, the vendors, Emma and Dominic, added designer lighting and shutters, and installed ducted under-floor air conditioning and heating.
The couple, who had moved out to Karaka from the Auckland city suburb of Onehunga, had been overwhelmed by the space the property had offered.
"For me, it's just this utopia... There's this sense of the beauty of the country. If you want a country rural feel it's the absolute peak of that," Emma told OneRoof before the sale.
The couple told OneRoof that they had decided to sell to be closer to family.
Earlier this month, a five-bedroom house on a lifestyle block on Redoubt Road, in Alfriston, near Manukau, fetched $3.85m under the hammer – $1.45m above its 2021 CV.
Ray White agent James McGregor, who marketed the property, said he had huge interest through the five-week campaign, and had brought the sale forward by a week.
A luxurious five-bedroom house with a pool and tennis court on Redoubt Road, Alfriston, near Manurewa sold at auction for $3.85m. Photo / Supplied
He said five bidders had registered for the auction “Three of them were active, the others dropping out at around $3.5m.”
McGregor said properties on that stretch of Redoubt Road rarely came onto the market, and were in high demand. The stylish house on a 12,000sqm section with spectacular views had a resort-style swimming pool, tennis court and multiple entertaining areas.
“There’s a real shortage of lifestyle properties. People are looking all around – Karaka, Clevedon, wherever - as there just is not much stock around of those 5000-10,000sqm blocks with a big family home.” he said.
“Redoubt Road was on the market for the first time since it was built over 20 years ago. They just don’t turn over that often.”
Another modern six-bedroom home on 7064sqm, closer to the Flat Bush side of Redoubt Road, fetched $2.88m, $555,000 above its 2021 CV.
- Additional reporting by Julia Steel
