Last year the Auckland inner-west suburb of Point Chevalier was the poster suburb for country's soaring house prices.
It's where last year's record-breaking season of The Block NZ was filmed and OneRoof reported on a string of sales in the lead up to the show's finale that showed just how hot the market was there: developers paying $6 million for a trio of neighbouring plots on the same street as the reality TV show; a near-new architect-designed house on Harbour View Road getting the year’s record-breaking price of $5.21m; and and a former The Block NZ townhouse selling for nearly $3.2m.
In November, the four townhouses on The Block NZ shattered the show’s price records when they sold for between $2.692m and $2.825m, reaping the contestants unheard-of profits of between $422,000 and $660,000.
Even earlier this year, buyers were snapping up a derelict house, with weeds up to the window, for just over $2.2m and a smartly renovated 1980s house on the water for over $3.5m.
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However, the market has switched to buyers hunting for their next family home who need agents to do a whole lot more finessing to get deals over the line.
Ray White agent Derek von Sturmer, who has worked the Point Chevalier patch since he began in real estate, gives some credit to The Block NZ. “I’ll credit it for Point Chev’s publicity. It has always been a popular suburb, but the prices were so astronomical [last year] they had to move south.”
He said that there was a “desperate” shortage of properties in the sweet spot: $2m to $3m price range.
Entry level for the suburb is a two-bedroom brick and tile 1960s unit on 3/1 Neville Street asking $929,000.
“There’d be 20 buyers with $2m to $4m ready to buy, but I need to solve the problem of selling their old property so they can buy this new one.”
He said by this time of the year, would-be sellers can’t deal with decluttering and staging.
Buyers are putting their houses on the market in order to chase a smartly renovated five-bedroom bungalow on Manor Place. Photo / Supplied
“I say to them ‘if you could just buy this house, would you? If we can take all the other stuff off your hands, how would that make you feel?’ They say ‘I’d buy it’,” he said.
Von Sturmer said the core of his market was families aged 35 to 45, a younger demographic than the other inner west suburbs, so he and colleagues Josh Kumar and Simon Abbott, who all work out of the Ray White Remuera office, have developed a new tack.
“We’ve got a house on Manor Place which is going to auction December 1. It has seven buyers who love the home, but won’t offer as they need to sell and there’s too much work on their home to get it ready to sell.
“They like the thought of living in a new home, but everything is too hard to get their place sold. The idea is that they can look after their family and we can take care of the property,” von Sturmer said. The agents have a team that can do all the “too hard” jobs to get a house on to the market with a project manager to coordinate de-cluttering, storage, cleaning and landscaping.
"We'll even get the trailer and take stuff to storage for them," he said.
He said that once buyers miss out on some properties in the tightly-held suburb, they realise they have to sell first. In one deal he’s putting together a chain of two buyers who need to sell their houses to move up the ladder, while another chain has three buyers and sellers to line up simultaneously.
Von Sturmer said that once buyers are in the market, they see how busy it is. One recent open home had 70 people at once “it was the biggest pile of shoes I’ve seen for a while.
“It was a four-bed family home, north of Meola Road, north facing yard, and north of $3m. That’s what people want.
“They’ll see 69 other people going through ‘my’ house.”
A four-bedroom house on a resort-style section on Raymond Street sold for $4.53m. Photo / Supplied
But, he said, the ‘sales prevention officers’ are active at the moment.
“They’re talking about an end-of-year crash, the world coming to an end – it's a mistakenly negative mindset they’re passing on to friends or family thinking of buying. They’re obsessed with getting a sound deal, they always have an opinion about what’s a good deal.”
Von Sturmer said that buyers looking 5-10 years ahead for their family home were less worried about over-paying $50,000 to $100,000 and more concerned with a better house for their family.
He said buyers could see that to trade-up to their next house, this year they are looking at spending another $500,000 to $1m compared to a couple of million dollars last year.
“For example, you spend $2m for a three-bed, one-bath on a big half site, or over $3m for a four-bed on a half site. Now you can get a quite nice home for $2.3m.”
At the upper end, he said a four-bedroom, 306sqm modern home in a resort-style setting on Raymond Street sold for close to its asking price of $4.53m, and its CV of $4.55m.
Von Sturmer pointed to a typical recent property sale that had four or five keen bidders, who could pay cash, but another 10 interested conditional buyers who needed to sell their old place.
"We have to help those people get their homes ready to sell, and have to find something for the other 14 buyers.”
