The nearly $4m paid under the hammer for a tired original condition bungalow in Auckland’s prized double grammar zone capped off a big December at Barfoot & Thompson’s final auction of 2021.
The agency's managing director, Peter Thompson, said that while December’s 911 sales were down on the record 1479 properties sold in December 2020, the average sale price of $1.278m for the month meant the year finished at “full speed".
The $3.985m paid two days before Christmas by a developer for a four-bedroom bungalow on Rangiatea Road, in Epsom, was a sign that buyers would come out for the right property, said Barfoot & Thompson agent George Fong, who marketed the property with Laura McAuley.
“The development market changed at the end of the year, with the cost of material supply and [building] uncertainty, but for the right property, developers don’t want to miss out.
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“About 80% of them are just watching now, but will [buy] if something very good comes along."
He said of the Rangiatea Road property: “This is over 800 sqm of flat land, it's in double grammar zone, and the kids can walk to primary school. Most of the street has already been developed.”
Developers had their eyes on the flat double grammar zone site. Photo / Supplied
Fong said that three bidders pushed the price past the expected high-$3m indicated before the auction. He said they were all developers who had not been active in the past couple of years. The property had a 2017 CV of $2.525m, of which just $75,000 was for improvements.
Fong said the buyer would hold the property, which is currently tenanted, and eventually build a couple of large four- or five-bedroom family homes.
Despite Barfoot & Thompson holding over 200 auctions in the three days leading up to Christmas, just 52 properties (25%) sold under the hammer or the same day, well down on November and early December’s figures.
A stylish architect-designed four-bedroom house on O'Neill Street, in Ponsonby, fetched $4.85m under the hammer at the end of December. Photo / Supplied
But Thompson said upper end buyers were still shopping.
“Buyers were not deterred by current prices, and during December we sold 255 homes for more than $2 million,” he said. “In spite of being severely hampered by Covid regulations for 15 weeks, 2021 was the company’s most active since 2015, and on average we sold 1119 properties each month.
Two end of year sales under the hammer of over $4m show the upper end is still trading well. Buyers paid $4.85m for a stylish modern concrete and steel four-bedroom house in Ponsonby’s O’Neill Street, and $4.24m for a renovated four-bedroom bungalow in Albury Avenue, in Epsom.
A house in Albury Avenue, also in Epsom's double grammar zone, sold for $4.24m. Photo / Supplied
Thomspon expected the housing market to remain strong in the first months of 2020, with the company adding 948 new property listings in December to bring listings at the start of 2022 to 3646 - a quarter more homes for sale than at the same time in 2021.
“Trading in the Auckland property market is invariably patchy in the first weeks of the year, and any trends in terms of prices and sales numbers is unlikely to be established until February’s data is released in early March,” Thompson said.
