A stylish three-bedroom Auckland villa sold for $2.011 million last night in a sign that the city's housing market is unlikely to be halted by the level three lockdown.
The sale of 6 Richbourne Street, in Kingsland, was brought forward after a buyer made a pre-auction offer of $1.68 million. Seven buyers competed against each other at the online auction held by Ray White Mt Eden, with 41 bids made.
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The house was snapped up by a couple who had been looking since the middle of last year.
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The listing agent, Robyn Ellson, told OneRoof: “They’d missed out on so many auctions that we actually gave them a bottle of commiseration champagne at the last auction of 2020.
“The house had only been on the market for two weekends. We thought we’d have four bidders but when we called around after level three was announced, we had seven. The buyers only saw the house this weekend.”
95A Lynwood Road, in New Lynn, Auckland, sold under the hammer for $1.513m. Photo / Supplied
Ellson said the vendors were moving out of Auckland. “Like many people, they re-evaluated after the first lockdown and are going home to the regions.”
She said that there was a lack of stock on the market. “We are working super-hard to get more properties on the market, we just don’t have enough [to meet] demand.”
Ray White’s chief auctioneer, John Bowring, said the lockdown had not impacted buyer demand.
“In Level three they just go for it,” he said. “I don’t know what it is about the online process, but we were at 90% [clearance] last time. There’s a lot that goes into prepping the bidders, but that price last night was incredible.”
Neighbouring 95 Lynwood Road fetched $931,000. Photo / Supplied
Campbell Dunoon, auctions manager at Barfoot and Thompson, told OneRoof that the agency had switched their planned auctions this week to online events. “We’re used to it. There are lots of bidders registered for this week's auctions. The market is still healthy,” he said.
The company has 78 online auctions lined up today, with a further 46 on Wednesday and 52 on Friday. Dunoon said next week would be even busier, with 66 auctions at the agency’s Highbrook office alone.
A stylishly renovated house at 2/12 Beatrice Avenue, in Hillcrest, Auckland, sold for $1.485 million. Photo / Supplied
Yesterday’s sales included $1.513 million for a two-year-old brick and tile house at 95A Lynwood Road, in New Lynn, and $931,000 for the neighbouring 1950s brick house at 95 Lynwood Road. Both properties were marketed by Kevin He and Gail Beaton.
Auction results by Harcourts Cooper & Co on Monday included $1.485 million for 2/12 Beatrice Avenue, in Hillcrest, a smartly renovated cross-lease property with a 2017 CV of $930,000. It was marketed by agent Jenny Hinton. Another cross-lease home at 2/22 Sunburst Lane, in Torbay, achieved $1.063 million, $373,000 above its CV. The property was marketed by agents Gavin Roberts and Michelle Heron.
Harcourts national auctions manager Aaron Davis described Level Three as "business as usual, in an unusual way".
"People are really positive and comfortable, it's the new norm. We've got 12 or 13 registered bidders for one auction in a Zoom situation this week," he said.
Davis said that unlike the last lockdown, when many people, himself included, thought the market would tumble, buyers and sellers were more sanguine. "Now they just switch comfortably."
In Torbay, a house at 2/22 Sunburst Lane Torbay sold for $1.063m under the hammer. Photo / Supplied
Bayleys has nine Auckland auctions lined up for this week, with the agency’s national auction manager, Conor Patton, telling OneRoof that bidders were comfortable with the process of watching auctions online and bidding by phone with agents. “We’ve done this before; people are keen to press on. We had some strong results with Waiheke properties last week and are expecting strong results this week, too,” he said.
