Multi-million-dollar Hamilton homes with unique features such as a pool, views or a park-like setting are still getting snapped up by buyers patiently waiting for their dream homes to come on the market.
A large architecturally-designed home in a gated-community in North Hamilton sold under the hammer for $2.33 million last week with five people bidding for it, four competitively.
The modern five-bedroom, three-bathroom home with a heated swimming pool and gymnasium in Durham Heights, Flagstaff, sold at the Bayleys Waikato auction on Thursday.
“The visually stunning family home located in Flagstaff's gated Durham Heights community fuses architectural design with functionality in a lavish 381sqm layout designed to capture views of Featherstone Reserve,” according to the listing.
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A cheeky $1m bid started the bidding off and as it approached $1.5m, Shale admitted to the crowd that the home, designed by Edwards White Architects and built by RPS Homes, wouldn’t sell at that price.
The price for the home then rose to $1.5m, which was also below his instructions to sell, but with four local buyers actively bidding it finally entered negotiations at $2.27m.
After a delay, the auction resumed at $2.3m at which point Shale announced it was on the market and finally sold for $2.33m. The RV was $2.5m.
Shale said the vendor was “pretty happy” with the price and there were still three buyers willing to spend $2m-plus that had missed out.
For sale: A four-bedroom home at 33B St Andrews Terrace, in St Andrews, Hamilton, has views of the golf course. Photo / Supplied
Last month, a modern house with a pool and park views on Meadowfield Street, in Flagstaff, sold for $1.82m at a Bayleys Waikato auction - above its RV of $1.725m.
Lodge managing director Jeremy O’Rourke said there were definitely buyers around who weren’t afraid to spend money on unique properties.
“People when they see a property and they know how rare it is, there are lots of buyers out there who are prepared to move.”
Location such as having views or backing onto parks or reserves are important to buyers in the higher-end of the market as well as amenities such as swimming pools or having automated functions like electronic blinds and having the lights controlled at a central source.
“All those modern conveniences that have been developed are valued by buyers when they’ve been put into properties.”
But buyers looking to spend several million dollars were most likely already in a comfortable home so wanted it to be perfect without having to do any work on it, he said.
Lodge is currently selling two higher-end properties he considers to be unique – a home at 33B St Andrews Terrace, St Andrews, with impressive golf course views that is to be sold by deadline, and a brand-new 300sqm six-bathroom, three-bedroom home at 57 Sylvester Crescent, in Flagstaff with an asking price of $1.899m.
This six-bedroom new-build at 57 Sylvester Crescent, in Flagstaff, has a $1.899m price tag. Photo / Supplied
O’Rourke said while RVs were a “general indication of the vicinity of the value”, they were not a reliable or accurate guide of what a property would sell for and some houses were still selling under RV and some were selling over.
Earlier this month Harcourts agents Ray Mitchell and Christine Willis also sold a near-new lifestyle property with five bedrooms, two bathrooms and a pool at Jakes Place in Te Kowhai for $2.35m.
Harcourts Hamilton director Campbell Scott said the higher-end of the market seemed to be more insulated from rising interest rates or the softening property market and were still buying.
“If you’ve got $2.5m to spend you’ve got a lot of choice at any given time, but there seems to be quite a few properties on the market for those guys at the moment so it’s nice to see that they aren’t sitting there and they are getting sold.”
Scott said those buyers were either looking for a property in a special location such as on the river or lake or with views or “out of the ordinary special content” such as a media room, sauna room or tennis courts.
A “luxury lake residence” at 169 Lake Crescent, Hamilton Lake, is on the market with Harcourts for $2.7m and boasts a pool, wine cellar and panoramic lake views.
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