It was the real estate unicorn that buyers are unlikely to see again.
A four-bedroom renovated home in Auckland's prized double grammar zone going to auction as an estate sale.
The agent had flagged that the house, which had a stylish finish and an outdoor pool, was “firmly on the market to sell”, and it did.
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The property on Onslow Avenue, in Epsom, sold under the hammer for $3.31 million - almost $50,000 below its 2021 CV, a pre-Christmas bargain for the lucky buyers.
Harcourts agents Julie Davies and Richard Humphries had been looking for urgency and the home had ticked all the boxes.
The sale comes amid an uptick in auction activity in the city.
Bayleys chief auctioneer Conor Patton told OneRoof that the agency’s auction numbers for November were the best so far this year.
This week, Bayleys has 98 auctions booked, including 24 in Queenstown and 23 in Christchurch. Next week it has lined up 56 auctions, mostly in Auckland.
Watch live stream of this week's NZ auctions below (live stream not available in app, click here to view)
And at Barfoot & Thompson, Auckland’s largest real estate agency, 128 properties are set go under the hammer this week, with another 118 scheduled for next week and 89 so far in the final auctions of the year, with the last auction scheduled for December 16.
But activity is significantly down on last year, when FOMO was high and prices were soaring. “Last November was one out of the box. Year on year, November and December are still strong, but last year we did even more in December,” Patton said.
He said there had been a big change in the types of properties selling under the hammer.
“Last year people were willing to gloss over any types of fish-hooks, things like homes not having up to date CCC, this year we’ve lost people prepared to deal with any of those issues.”
There had also been a change in buyer appetite for properties that failed to reach their reserve, with Patton noting there was fewer unconditional buyers lined up to buy properties that passed in at auction.
With agents still locking in new listings for the end of this year and into early 2023, Patton was unwilling to call where the market was headed. “Buyers and sellers have mixed feelings. I think we won’t get a clear picture of the mood of the market until February. What I do see is that owners who have decided to sell are doing so this year and not waiting until next year,” he said.
This three-bedroom home on 705 Scenic Drive, in Henderson Valley, Auckland, goes to auction on December 2. Photo / Supplied
A three-bedroom brick and tile home for sale at 1/38 Miltonia Avenue, in Te Atatu South, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Of the properties auction streaming platform Gavl has on the slate this week and next, agents are trying to keep buyer interest high by showing that their vendors are open to pre-auction offers.
A pair of west Auckland properties marketed by the break-out star of the reality television show Rich Listers, Harcourts’ Diego Traglia, is seeking conditional offers before going under the hammer on Friday.
The marketing copy adds to the urgency. The listing for a three-bedroom house on a 1666sqm site on 705 Scenic Drive, in Henderson Valley, is telling buyers the “moving van booked”. OneRoof records show the house, which has a CV of $810,000, sold four years ago for $674,000.
In Te Atatu South, a solid three-bedroom brick and tile on a cross-lease site on 1/38 Miltonia Avenue is being billed as a deceased estate. It has a CV of $1.2m and last sold in 1998 for $256,000.
Harcourts Whangarei agents Valerie Hanger and Heather Jameson are also signalling the need to do a deal with their listing of a three-bedroom waterfront home at 60 Scott Road, in Tamaterau. According to OneRoof records, the 1246sqm property last sold in 1988 for $162,500 but now has a CV of $1.125m.
The agents say the vendors have signed up to their new home and want their tidily presented house with a spa pool and a bush walk down to the beach “sold this week”.
A three-bedroom waterfront home at 60 Scott Road, in Tamaterau, Whangārei. Photo / Supplied
