A smartly renovated five-bedroom house in Remuera’s heartland sold this week for $8.3 million after receiving multiple offers.
The sale price of the Arney Road house was well above its CV of $7.4m and a comfortable $2m more than the property sold for less than six years ago. Since then the vendors had installed a new kitchen, remodeled three bathrooms, added solar panels, and refreshed the interior and exterior.
Ray White Remuera agents Thomas Farmer and Simon Siddells, who marketed the 1930s home with a stylish Sumich Chaplin Architects-designed renovation, said that the buyer was a Remuera local. The 1.3km street that sweeps down the steep northern slopes of Remuera to Hobson Bay has the highest concentration of expensive homes in New Zealand, accounting for 27 of the 500 top settled house sales since 2000.
The sale comes after the property was passed in at auction in early July.
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“We had two bidders, but when it passed in, we immediately went into a three-way multi-offer,” Farmer told OneRoof.
Siddells said that it was the process of an auction sale, not just the 15 minutes under the hammer, that brought out the buyers.
Agents say there are plenty of buyers with $6m-$10m budgets but only 8-10 properties on average for sale in that bracket. Photo / Supplied
“If they can’t bid at auction, we round them up afterwards,” he said, adding that more than 35 groups of people had looked at the property which was mostly appointment-only viewings.
“They were in a position to buy at that price. A lot of people and industries have been unaffected by the recession or negativity, they’ve got a lot of asset wealth, they’re not borrowing, cash flow is not an issue.
“In Remuera and the bays, there’s wealth there that will always be there.”
Siddells said that there were generally only eight to 10 houses in the $6m to $10m price bracket for sale at any one time, and more buyers than that, “so if you’ve got a beautiful one, why wouldn’t you go to auction.”
“A lot of people are scared about auctioning high end, but we’ve got a property we’re bringing to auction in September that will be $10m-plus.”
Across the city, OneRoof can reveal another nearly $10m sale has also settled in Freemans Bay.
A stylishly renovated 1970s home on Archdall Street, Meadowbank, sold for $2.732m after 120 people viewed it and four bidders competed. Photo / Supplied
The off-market sale of a quirkily renovated five-bedroom villa on Arthur Street settled last quarter for $9.35m, $3m more than its CV of $6.3m.
UP Realty agent Peter Cleave, who brokered the deal with Patrick McCarthy, could not comment on the sale, which included a remarkable 1495sqm of land. OneRoof records show the property last changed hands six-and-a-half years ago for $2.4m.
Interest is also high in what is considered “middle market” for the eastern suburbs, Farmer said.
A stylishly updated 1970s house on Archdall Street, Meadowbank, that he and Siddells marketed this month, sold under the hammer for $2.732m after a heated auction last week.
Interest was high in the property with some 120 people viewing the house, resulting in four registered bidders – numbers that have rarely been seen since the market peaked late last year.
Over 70 bids drove the price to well over the “on the market” number of $2.6m and nearly $400,000 over the property’s CV of $2.35m.
The four-bedroom home had been renovated by architect Sam Atcheson from DAA, who had designed fit-outs for popular restaurants Ebisu and Tyler Street Garage, and included new heating, insulation and double glazing, as well as the modern version of 1970s cool.
A five-bedroom home on Isobel Road, Greenhithe, sold at auction last weekend for $3.2m in a campaign that felt "like 2021" say the agents . Photo / Supplied
Farmer said that bidders were cashed up with finance approved, but there were several other buyers waiting in the wings who were yet to sell their old homes.
“In this market, cashed-up and ready-to-go is best. The home is stunning and shows that high quality homes can still go to auction and do well, good quality is selling,” he said.
Also selling under the hammer this week was a smartly-presented five-bedroom home on Isobel Road, Greenhithe in Auckland’s north west that went for $3.2m.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Sarah Benbow, who marketed the property with Annie Yong-Mewburn, said the campaign was “like 2021”.
“We had over 80 groups through the campaign, with six bidders and eight conditional buyers lined up if it didn’t sell at auction.
“But it went to $200,000 above reserve, and well above its CV [of $1.875m]. It was so exciting.”
Benbow said that the list of “ingredients” of the property – single level, only 10 years old, in old Greenhithe on a good section with heating and solar – made the agents and vendors decide to “go for it’’ with an auction, rather than a deadline sale.
“It was like a breath of fresh air. It shows there are plenty of buyers,” she said.
“It’s a nice boost, it shows that it is not all doom and gloom all the time, there are the buyers there,” added Yong-Mewburn.
- Additional reporting Louise Richardson, Gabrielle Nooijen
