Fourteen bidders packed the Ray White Remuera auction rooms this week as a smartly renovated four-bedroom home just off Victoria Avenue went under the hammer.
The weatherboard house with a pool on Combes Road sold for $3.75 million, a comfortable $775,000 above its $2.975m CV.
Ray White agent Harry Champtaloup, who marketed the property, said that the under-$3m CV drew a bigger crowd, with 145 people through the house during its three weeks of open homes, and one pre-auction offer. The buyers with the pre-auction offer came up “substantially” he said and eventually won the auction.
“It was where we saw the value, but the auction process tests the market with buyers. There are some buyers who will have a crack at trying to buy under CV.
Start your property search
“We’re taught not to think of those as cheeky any more, they might eventually find something, but this went for 26% above CV.”
Champtaloup said the lack of quality stock at the moment – the double grammar zone house was immaculately renovated and had a pool, both top of buyers’ lists – means that buyers are energetic about moving. The property drew interest from not just eastern suburbs buyers, but also Herne Bay families looking for more bang for their buck in the east.
Top price in auction rooms over the last two weeks was the $4.5m paid for a renovated four-bedroom villa on Inverary Street, Epsom. Photo / Supplied
“Some people are shopping in the $2m bracket, others might have borrowings to get them to $5m. There are still buyers who are not bank imposed, but some who are,” Champtaloup said.
The top auction sale price in the past two weeks was the $4.5m paid for a stylish four-bedroom villa on Inverary Avenue, Epsom. Barfoot & Thompson agent Diana West, who marketed the double grammar zone property with Peter West, said that she focused her campaigns to just two weeks to bring out all the unconditional buyers.
The strategy worked, bringing six registered bidders to the auction and achieving a price West said was nearly $1m more than what the vendors were expecting. The property had a CV of $3.9m.
Like most agents, West said that well-renovated properties that needed no work brought in the buyers, although for some vendors it still hadn’t sunk in that this year’s prices at the $3m to $5m end of the market were down by up to 20% from the market peak.
A large four-bedroom house on a 1012sqm section on Parkside Street, St Heliers, had three bidders competing before it sold for $4.1m, well above its $3.75m CV.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Aaron Foss, who marketed the property, said that houses on that particular street next to the park were sought after but hardly ever came up for sale.
He said that there were sellers listing quickly now in the $2m to $4m price range so that they would make their sales pre-Christmas.
“We’re seeing more buyers than at the same time last year,” he said.
Ray White agent John Lantz, whose listing for another smartly renovated four-bedroom house on Greenbank Road, St Johns, that sold under the hammer at the end of October for $3.675m, said buyers were definitely prepared to pay more to have a move-in ready, completed renovation.
“They don’t want to live through the renovation, with unknown costs, supply issues and council delays.
A partly renovated church in Waipahi, Clutha, that was sold for removal, sold for $78,000. Photo / Supplied
“We know with this type of house we’d have reasonable activity. There’s definitely a shortage of these $3m-plus houses, all the way up to the $6.5m to $7m end,” he said, adding that buyers trading up from the $2.5m house to their $3.5m were now selling first so that they were in a good cash position to bid at auction.
“People are really excited about the market leading up to Christmas. When they see the right home, they’re excited.”
Five bidders registered for a well-renovated four-bedroom house in Fancourt Street, Meadowbank, which sold for $3.15m, $300,000 above CV.
Ray White agent Nick Lyus, who marketed the property with Nicki Lambert, said that over 100 groups had viewed the property, which he called the “ultimate family solution that attracted the emotional dollars.
“Buyers are scared rigid of renovations, so these homes in any market do well. It’s the homes with challenges or clangers that struggle, whereas in the hot market everything sells.”
Also selling the day of auction was a house on 950sqm that sold for $2.85m. Barfoot & Thompson agent Jacqui Ding, who marketed the property with Kelly Zhang, said the house had changed hands last year for $3.218m, with the difference explained by the 10 to 15% drop in the Epsom and Mount Eden markets.
At the other end of the scale, Gore Bayleys agent Julie Mitchell sold a classic timber-lined church for removal, currently on land in Waipahi, near Clutha, for $78,000 on Friday. Mitchell billed the 86sqm building, already fitted with new cladding, insulation and a wood-burner, as the “start to your prayers being answered”.
