Bargain hunters have been snapping up apartments for under $250,000 in Auckland this month, but premium properties in the city's blue-chip suburbs are still fetching big sums under the hammer.
A classic four-bedroom bungalow on Dell Avenue, in Remuera’s double Grammar zone, had four bidders pushing the price to $3.99 million, more than $600,000 over its 2021 valuation.
UP agent Jo Johnstone, who marketed the renovated house with a pool and spa, said 87 groups of buyers had viewed the property during its three-week campaign.
“People couldn’t believe it, they were excited at the open homes, it was just like old times,” she said, adding that such a good property hit the sweet spot for price and location.
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She said about two-thirds of buyers were not waiting to sell their old house, although the other third was taking a more cautious approach, as such properties were still rare on the market.
The results are high point amid reports of a "bloodbath" in the housing market and falls in the REINZ house price index for the sixth consecutive month.
Ray White Remuera agent Harry Champtaloup, who marketed a stylishly renovated five-bedroom villa on Paget Street in inner-city Freemans Bay that sold under the hammer for $5.4m, said the number of buyers looking in the $4m-$7m price bracket hadn’t dwindled.
The five-bedroom villa on Paget Street, Freemans Bay, was in a rare and sought-after location, with city views. Photo / Supplied
“They're not ‘bank imposed’ at that level, they can release cash, even if they have a house still to sell,” he said, adding that the rarity of a big property on the Freemans Bay ridge (it had even rarer parking for two cars and a second laneway access) brought out over 60 aspiring buyers to the house, on the market for the first time in more than 20 years.
“There’s definitely room to add value, but there’s uncertainty about doing a full renovation, that’s why this got a premium.” Bidding opened at $4.5m, more than the $4.35m ratings valuation, and quickly shot up.
“Auctions are still appropriate in such valuable locations and that $4m to $5m price point, there are lots of genuine buyers,” Champtaloup said.
The owner had earlier told OneRoof that she had turned the house, originally in three flats, back into a single home.
In scenes more like 2021, 87 groups of buyers viewed the bungalow at Dell Avenue, Remuera which sold for $3.99m. Photo / Supplied
“It was pretty rumpty after some renovations which I think must have been done in the late 1960s or early 1970s,” she said. Renovations included creating a flat rear lawn and a sleepout, a hydraulic lift from the carport, stripping and polishing original kauri floors and staircase and adding a granite and stainless kitchen.
There are buyers prepared to take on a do-up, as the hammer came down on a four-bedroom Grey Lynn villa on Northland Street for $2.2m earlier this month.
Barfoot & Thompson agents Kath Barnes and Jacqui Vaughan-Kells, who marketed the property, said it had been in the family for more than 100 years and the listing photos show the interior in near-original condition.
The agents could not comment on the buyer, the single bidder on the 594sqm property, except to say he was planning to renovate the villa, which has a rating valuation of $2.65m.
Earlier in the month, a do-up villa, on the market for the first time in 100 years, in Northland Street, Grey Lynn sold for $2.2m. Photo / Supplied
For buyers who would rather pay for an already renovated Grey Lynn villa, the agents have an attractive four-bedroom villa on Ariki Street with additions, a modern kitchen and three bathrooms asking $3.39m.
Bargain hunters are back in force in the inner-city auction rooms for investment flats. As well as a destroyed apartment on Vincent Street, just up from Auckland’s Aotea Square that sold for just $43,200, buyers scored a one-bedroom flat on Waterloo Quadrant, next to Auckland University for $222,500.
A one-bedroom apartment in a building with issues on Waterloo Quadrant sold for $222,500. Photo / Supplied
The Ray White agents marketing the property, Judy and Michelle Yurak, were up-front about the “pending building issues” but still found buyers for the one-bedroom corner apartment in The Connaught with Albert Park and harbour views, a carpark and use of the pool and gym.
At the same auction, the pair sold another two-bedroom apartment under the hammer on Nelson Street in the central city, with views over the city and harbour. They described it as “in need of a new lick of paint and a few other minor improvements” but said the property’s location, near the City Works Depot, and that it was in a well-managed complex would give fantastic returns.
An apartment on Nelson Street sold for $257,200, nearly $70,000 less than it sold for three years ago. Photo / Supplied
It sold for $257,200, below its 2021 ratings valuation of $290,000 - and well below the $327,000 it last sold for in March 2019, before Covid wiped out the student rental market in that part of the city.
In today’s auctions at Barfoot & Thompson, while most properties passed in, a four-bedroom 1970s house on a roomy 5000sqm section on Point View Drive, East Tamaki in Manukau, fetched $2.75m, just over its 2021 ratings valuation of $2.73m.
