'You could have scraped me off the floor when it went past $1m'

A 1940s ex-state house on a large site in central Auckland sold for $1.02 million at auction today - $160,000 above CV.

It’s a further sign that developers and investors are combing the city for properties with potential to add multiple townhouses or apartments, not slowing down as viewing and auctions switched into Level 3 rules.

Four bidders were trumped by a late, fifth bidder for the 693 sq m site in Panmure that has a mixed housing suburban zoning.

Barfoot and Thompson agent Margaret Johnson, who marketed the property at 44 Hobson Drive with her sister Phyllis Brooks, said the original house was in pretty rough shape so they and the vendor had expected around the reserve of $860,000, maybe early $900,000s.

"You could have scraped me off the floor when it went past $1 million," Johnson says. She said that while some first home buyers would have loved the fixer-up project, it was mostly developers or investors in the 25 groups which had managed to view the property with just one open home and two weeks of Level 3 restrictions.

The buyer, who worked with Barfoot and Thompson's Parnell office, had missed out on another property in Papakura and had also been looking in west Auckland, so was "absolutely over the moon" says Parnell branch manager Pauline Goldfinch. She says the investor plans to hold the property initially, but was "rapt" to get something so close to the city and on a good corner site.

Demand for development sites has been building. Last month Johnson sold another property at 4 Tamaki Drive, Pakuranga for $1.61 million. The 812 sq m site had terrace housing and apartment zoning and a CV of just $1.01 million.

And yesterday Barfoot and Thompson agent Kevin He achieved $3.385 million for a Blockhouse Bay property on 2428sqm. Zoned residential mixed housing suburban and with a CV of $1.9 million, the land will have new housing built on it.

Developers are prepared to stump up big money for large pieces of land in good suburbs. Last week the deal went unconditional for a huge 2525 sq m property in Auckland's Remuera for $8.6 million. Developer Gibbons Co has already got consent for 19 townhouses, moving off the original Victorian house.

Ray White Commercial director Finn Hurst, who brokered the deal, says that his division at Ray White was focused on finding land for developments and worked with residential agents to find suitable properties, with many deals being off-market.

Barfoot and Thompson auctioneer Murray Smith says with six out of seven lots selling today, “the election is not getting in the way".