A five-bedroom stately home in Epsom has hit the market sporting one of the suburb’s biggest CVs.
The Auckland double grammar zone house at 9 Fern Avenue has a 2017 rating valuation of $10.5 million, but the high number hasn’t put off buyers – especially expats living overseas.
Michael Boulgaris, who is marketing the property for sale by negotiation, told OneRoof that he had had multiple international calls in the five days the house has been on market.
One was from a single woman in the United States who was interested in snapping up the property all for herself.
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When Boulgaris asked her why she wanted a five-bedroom house, she replied, “Doesn’t everyone?” before adding that she was planning to get a dog.
"She said price was not the issue. It’s a different world [over] there while in New Zealand we are quite conservative,” he said.
Boulgaris, who specialises in grand homes at the top end of the housing market, said the 2720sqm property has its own private access to neighbouring Cornwall Park.
Michael Boulgaris says he has had a lot of overseas interest in the property. Photo / Ted Baghurst
“If a house had access to Central Park, in New York, we’d be talking tens of millions of dollars, so New Zealand is quite cheap in comparison.”
The two storey house was built in the 1920s and renovated in 2000 but still has many of the original features, including the kauri floors, rimu joinery and oak panelling. It also has a three-car garage, tennis court, indoor swimming pool, music room, billiard room and gym.
The house backs onto Cornwall Park and has a tennis court and indoor pool. Photo / Supplied
Boulgaris said properties like 9 Fern Avenue rarely come on the market – “maybe once every 10 or 20 years”.
According to OneRoof records, it last changed hands in 2013 for $5.9 million and REINZ data shows it has the fifth highest CV in Epsom.
The highest settled sale price this year is $10.7 million for an unidentified home in Auckland's Takapuna, so 9 Fern Avenue would have to sell $20,000 above CV to beat that record.
However, the Herald on Sunday reported last month that the former Auckland home of Kiwi director Andrew Adamson had sold recently to former All Black Ali Williams for around $23 million. That would require a buyer prepared to pay 119 percent above CV for Fern Avenue to take the title.
Another luxury stately home with a tennis court for sale in Epsom has also attracted a lot of overseas interest.
Agents Graham and Andrew Wall are expecting the four-bedroom home at 37 Claude Road to fetch around $10 million, adding that most of the buyer enquiry had come from Kiwis living overseas – in New York, Dubai and London.
37 Claude Road, in Epsom, is also for sale, and has a CV of just over $9 million. Photo / Supplied
The last two properties the Walls sold were to buyers living in Hong Kong. “We’ve had a heck of a lot of enquiries. It’s an old family home but bloody beautiful - it’s an exquisite thing. Plenty of [expats] are waiting to buy a house in New Zealand,” he said.
While many Auckland homes have been selling above CV at auctions since the end of the first lockdown, the city's housing market isn't the hottest. Data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand shows that properties in Gisborne are selling on average for 71 percent higher than current CVs, the highest in the country.
At a regional level Auckland residential properties are currently selling at the closest to their CV.
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said: “Currently, buyers are paying on average 5 percent over the CV in Auckland which is the most ‘affordable’ in the country – despite the fact that the current CVs are nearly three years old and were due to be updated at the end of this year."
