A smart four-bedroom home in Auckland’s Grey Lynn fetched $5.3m at auction last week, setting a new record for the inner-city suburb.
The eight-year-old house on Grosvenor Street had a 2017 CV of $2.85m and was on the market for less than a fortnight before it was snapped up.
The listing agent, Bayleys’ Luke McCaw, said there were "numerous parties" at the auction vying to be the home’s new owners.
"More than 20 people had looked at the property, mostly from neighbouring suburbs, although some were from Epsom and Remuera,” he said.
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The house was listed on November 2, and was set to go auction at the end of the month but a pre-auction offer of $4.7m brought the sale forward.
The sale price beats the previous Grey Lynn sales record of $5.05m, paid in 2019 for a new build five-bedroom house on Rose Road.
Inside the Grosvenor Street home. Photo / Supplied
The 480sqm section on Grosvenor Street used to be home to a tired 1950s weatherboard cottage. A builder picked up the site in 2012 for $761,000 and demolished the cottage to make way for the luxury new-build with media room, guest suite, outdoor fireplace, and, rare in Grey Lynn, double garaging and extra off-street parking.
The builder sold the home in 2014 for an undisclosed price.
McCaw said he had downsizers and professional couples show interest in the house. “People were drawn by the quality of the house - there was nothing to do but move in."
He said many of those who had inspected the home had been looking for the right home for a while and budgets of between $4m and $8m. “Homes of such a high calibre just don't pop up very often, and we just don't have more properties to show the underbidders.”
At time of publication, there was just one property in the $4m-plus price band for sale in Grey Lynn on OneRoof. The agent marketing the property, Ray White's Heather Walton, told OneRoof the dramatically renovated four-bedroom former cottage in Rose Road is likely to sell for over $6m when it goes to auction November 25.
Buyers might have to wait until January now before more prestige homes come to market, McCaw said.
"Vendors are not going to rush to list now before Christmas. It's too much of a risk. People at those lower price points will still go ahead."
$5m-plus is the exception in Grey Lynn, where the average property value sits at just $2m. A week ago, a more typical three-bedroom villa on 288 sqm on Murdoch Road, Grey Lynn sold at auction for $2.625m.
