A brand-new Stevenson Designer home abandoned for five years has sold almost two weeks before it was due to go to auction.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom property on Meadowfield Street in Flagstaff had been a talking-point for neighbours curious as to why no one had ever moved into it.
But within just two weeks of being listed and large foot traffic through the open homes, the property has sold after a pre-auction offer of $1.55 million was made and accepted.
The overseas owner bought the Flagstaff home in 2017 just prior to completion with plans to move into it and then kept it for her son, but decided to sell it after neither of those things eventuated.
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Harcourts Hamilton listing agent Craig Annandale, who was marketing the property with Yvenna Yue, said a Hamilton couple who had been looking for six months made an unconditional offer on the house after viewing the property in the first week.
Annandale said it was a “pretty good result” in the current market and right in the middle of their $1.5m and $1.6m price indication for the property. It has a rateable value of $1.55m.
Other interest in the property had been from people who had to sell their current house first, but the owner decided to take the early offer on the agreement that it would settle outside the auction room.
“There’s a lot of that going on – subject to house sale agreement, but in an ideal world cash is always king. When people list their house, quite often they are not getting the money they thought they would have based on sales they observed six months ago so it’s just about being realistic,” Annandale said.
The owner of property accepted a pre-auction offer within two weeks of putting the house on the market. Photo / Supplied
“We’ve been saying this to a lot of vendors is there are just not a lot of miracle sales now. Last year you would get miracle sale prices where agents would find out and you’d be like ‘wow someone paid that’ whereas now it is a normal market where is a lot more rationality behind the prices that you are seeing.”
Hamilton’s house prices had dropped by about 10% since last year, he said.
The Meadow St open homes were also the busiest the pair had held in a long time with a lot of neighbours' keen to have a peek into the house that had been sitting empty for so long, he said.
“I think there were a lot of people wondering, who buys a house and doesn’t ever move into it.”
Yue earlier told OneRoof that it was the first time she’s come across a brand-new property that has been left empty by its owner for so many years.
“It’s quite interesting - for five years someone just abandoned the house for so long,”
With the owner based in China, the agents had also been tasked with getting the house ready for sale.
Tradespeople including an electrician and gasfitter were called into check and reconnect the utilities and the house was even re-inspected by a builder.
