Local buyers paid $3.8 million for a luxury Arrowtown property last week, while another paid $3.345m this week as the Queenstown property market rebounds from its slump.
Bayleys reported that 20 out of 23 properties sold at Friday’s super-auction last week despite no Aucklanders and no Australians coming into the resort town.
Bayleys managing director David Gubb told OneRoof that more than 500 people watching Friday’s auction online was a sign of huge confidence in the town’s property market.
“Confidence is not dented by no Aucklanders or Australians, people are just spending money and getting on with it. Buyers are a mix of out-of-towners and locals, and properties across all the price brackets are selling. We had a clearance rate of 87%, with five Auckland buyers and two from Wellington, the rest locals,” Gubb said.
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Bayleys national auction manager Conor Patton, who called the Queenstown auctions, said that while the town faced a lot of negative press last July and August when properties were failing to sell at auction, that has turned around now.
“This would be one of the most active markets with the number of auctions brought forward – nearly half in September and October. That’s buyers wanting to beat the market.”
The highest price at Friday's big auction was $3.8m for a house on Essex Avenue, Arrowtown. Photo / Supplied
Friday’s sales ranged from a top $3.8m for a stylish, four-bedroom home on 128sqm on the reserve frontage of Essex Avenue, Arrowtown to $440,000 for a 677sqm section on Duohys Lane in the new Pisa Vineyards subdivision in Cromwell, 50 minutes away.
A five-level, four-bedroom home on Olivers Place on Queenstown Hill with jaw-dropping views of Lake Wakatipu sold for $2.28m to one of just two Australian buyers who were lucky on the day. Auckland buyers nabbed a stylish near-new, five-bedroom house on Jack’s Point in Durness Court got $2.03m, and a 694sqm corner section on Cunninghams Drive in the same subdivision went for $885,000, which was bought sight unseen.
A section on Duohys Lane in the Pisa Vineyards subdivision of Cromwell went for $440,000. Photo / Supplied
“That’s a very high price for a section, but it’s one of the last ones left and there’s scarcity. The only new land is now around Hanleys Farm, and new home and land there is around $1m to $1.3m – that’s entry level for Queenstown now.
“Our clearance rate is 87%, the demand is across all the price points.”
Yesterday, four bidders pushed the price of an award-winning, three-bedroom Thomson Street, Arrowtown house to nearly $300,000 above its pre-auction offer, with the hammer coming down to a Queenstown local at $3.345m.
A four-bedroom house on Olivers Place in the Queenstown Hills fetched $2.28m. Photo / Supplied
“We had a bidder from Australia, the rest a mix of locals, but there was a lot of overseas interest too,” Bayleys Queenstown sales manager Stacy Coburn said.
He added that with 20 properties booked for November’s auction already, this was the busiest spring for Queenstown since the peak of 2017.
“We expect December and January will be busier too, the number of people looking at the market means we’ll expect to see more stock coming on. Auctions are the method of choice because prices are moving so quickly and you don’t want to under-sell, you don’t know how far buyers will go.
“And a good proportion of those bidders were Aucklanders buying sight unseen – about six of the 23 lots. Our figures show 28% of buyers are from out of town.”
Bidding reached $2.03m for a five-bedroom house in Durness Court in exclusive Jack's Point. Photo / Supplied
But, he added, the lack of visitors in the school holidays was hurting the town.
“We want the town back up on its foils, and I think the rest of the country does too.”
Patton said that despite lockdowns, auctions nationally were up 12% in September and 50% (including 10% in Auckland) in October.
“And November is going to be our busiest, with offices already asking to add more auction dates in December or start earlier in January.”
