Tears of happiness ran down her face as she heard a loud hammer bang and call of “sold” from the auctioneer.
No longer homeless, UK national Ally Jones, who had been house hunting for almost a year, had finally found an Auckland home.
READ MORE: Find out if your suburb is rising or falling
“Relieved is how I feel. It’s been a long, stressful, emotional journey. The happiness will come out after,” she told OneRoof at Ray White Manukau's auction room last Thursday.
Start your property search
Jones sold her property in Tauranga at Christmas and had been house hunting all over Auckland region since then.
Her only wish was to have enough space for her dogs to run around.
“I just wanted to find a place - one, two or three bedrooms - with a larger site for my dogs. The only place where I stopped looking was Whangaparoa because of the distance.”
Instead, Jones paid more than she intended for a dated three-bedroom Mangere East home on 711sqm section.
Her budget was $870,000 but she kept bidding on 19 Moffitt Place until she secured the place at $920,000 - $50,000 over her budget.
Nine other people were competing to bid on the property, which had a CV of $640,000. The house was on the market for the first time since it was built in 1960s.
Jones said buyers like her were feeling fatigue: months of going to open homes, doing inspections, sorting out paper work and then constantly missing out in the current sellers’ market had all taken its toll.
“Sellers can afford not to accept pre-auction offer, they don’t have to sell to me or you, they will sell to whoever offers best,” Jones said.
The Ray White agent marketing the property, Monika Maynard, said the vendor was happy that the house - which is zoned for mixed residential housing suburban - went to a buyer who was not an investor or developer.
Bidders drove the price of 15 Nikau Road Otahuhu to $785,000. Photo / Supplied
Maynard said there were hundreds of buyers in her database looking to buy in Manukau because it was still deemed an affordable area of Auckland. According to OneRoof’s latest figures, Mangere's median property value is $725,000. Mangere Bridge's median value is $985,000 while Manurewa's is $655,000 and Papatoetoe's $735,000.
Also at the auction was a couple who had been looking for a family house in South Auckland for about two months. They had been bidding for a three-bedroom property at 15 Nikau Road, in Otahuhu, but were outgunned as bids romped past their limit of $700,000. The house eventually sold for $785,000.
“It’s just out of our range. The prices are crazy and people are paying $200,000 to $300,000 more. Their minimum is my maximum,” said the couple, who did not wish to be named.
A house at 4 Blake Road Mangere East sold for $870,000. Photo / Supplied
They already have a house in Mangere East but were looking to upgrade. However they don’t want to sell their current house and be homeless as they keep missing out on properties.
“If you sell then you have to look for a bigger and better place which is hard to find so we will stay put and hold on to it now as we have a bigger section,” they said.
Another Mangere East property on 4 Blake Road sold under the hammer for $870,000 to a buyer who had earlier made a pre-auction offer of $860,000.
The three-bedroom property on a freehold 622sqm site last sold in July for $630,000 to a do-up trader who upgraded the house within a few months and put it back on the market.
Another brick and tile home in Mangere sold under the hammer for $890,000, $130,000 above its rateable valuation.
The four-bedroom home at 51 Hallberry Road sits on a 675sqm freehold site and is zoned for mixed housing development.
