A stylish brick home in a suburb famous for its wooden villas has sold under the hammer for $3.5 million – almost double its 2017 CV.
Five bidders, out of 11 registered for the auction, competed to secure the three-bedroom 125sqm home on Ponsonby Terrace, in Ponsonby, Auckland.
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The listing agents, Ray White’s Elaine Ferguson and Matt Johnson, said the buyers were an artistic couple that had appreciated the property’s unique look and modern interior.
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“People loved the bricks and the unusualness of it, and it was a recently renovated, immaculately presented home that was ready to move into,” she said.
The double brick villa, which sits on a 371sqm, benefited from off-street parking but what made it stand out was the vendors’ love of pop art.
The vendors told OneRoof earlier this month, when the house first went on the market, that they loved colouring in their homes.
The double brick villa was stylish and offered off-street parking. Photo / Supplied
The couple, who bought the house two years ago for $1.8m, said: "We never designed the decor here for resale as an investment property. We bounced ideas off each other and designed it around what we love and what we want to wake up to in the morning, work from home in and be around."
They painted the roof, and joinery, installing new soundproof "hush" glass in their sash windows. They updated their kauri floors with a light grey paint finish and resealed and repainted the board and batten ceilings.
They told OneRoof they were starting another renovation project, in a home that they won unexpectedly at auction.
Ray White national auctioneer John Bowring said the clearance rate for agency over the last two weeks had been sitting at a high 82%.
“82% is extremely good for this time of the year,” he said, adding that average number of registered bidders was up on what he’d usually expect in winter, from 2.5 bidders to close to four.
He said demand was outstripping supply, with buyer interest in quality homes particularly high.
“Plus, interest rates are still good and they’ve gone from ridiculous to still ridiculous. Who cares if it’s 2.2% or 2.4%? It’s about $7 a week, it’s not huge,” he said.
