A plain two-bedroom cottage worth just $300,000 sold for a whopping $11.8 million, OneRoof can reveal.
The sale price, the highest for a residential property this summer, reflects the high value of the 1.13 hectares the dated house sits on.
The property, which was listed with agents from Colliers and Ray White and sold in December, was pitched as a development opportunity in a desirable part of Queenstown-Lakes.
The marketing for the Eely Point Road property in Wanaka, Queenstown-Lakes, highlighted the site's future potential, stating that the flat land was capable of a subdivision of up to 20 sites and that a feasibility study had been prepared by the sellers.
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According to OneRoof, the property last changed hands in 2002 for $1.15m. The 2021 RV is $7.8m, of which $300,000 was for the cottage.
Ray White Wanaka owner Duncan Good, who brokered the sale, said that there was strong interest in the property from both wealthy individuals and developers, including from overseas, as its size and location was “very rare indeed.
“The potential here [is] the low-density zoning in this highly desirable area, known as the ‘golden triangle’. The fact it has such established trees, significant road frontages and is only 200m to the Eely Point Reserve all add to the value here,” Good told OneRoof, adding that most interest was from existing buyers with long-standing ties and experience in Wananaka.
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Good said that demand for housing in Wanaka remains strong from both local and out of town buyers, including families relocating from the North Island planning to work remotely.
“We have seen an increase in activity and interest as the year progresses, as savvy buyers are using the market conditions to their advantage in order to step up the property ladder or, in some cases, downsize.”
The next biggest sale this summer was of a luxury home in Auckland's Remuera. The five-bedroom home on Ranui Road sold under the hammer for $7.2m, also in December.
It is still a far cry from the summer record set the year before when a Remuera Road mansion sold in December 2021 for $29m. That sale price, for a 979sqm house on a 4188sqm section away from the road, was the third highest for a residential property in New Zealand, and the highest for a house in Remuera.
The auction for the immaculately renovated property on Ranui Road, which had been transformed from a 1960s house to a generous five-bedroom, three-bathroom property, complete with pool and tropical garden on a large section, was at the beginning of the month.
At the time the property went on the market at the beginning of November, UP Real Estate agents Josh Nixon and Peter Cleave said the double grammar school zone home was a rare find, ticking all the boxes. The house, which last sold seven years ago, had a CV of $5.5m.
At the time, Nixon said: “Homes like these that are completely finished, that come with such seamless flow, a pool, plenty of space for the kids outside, plenty of garaging and storage for all the toys, are in that double grammar zone … they don’t come up very often.
“This really is a special opportunity.”
This is not the first time the architect who designed the latest renovation for the Ranui Road home has created a suburb record. John Durkin, of Abri Architects, was also responsible for a Hamptons-style house on Omaha Beach that set the record price for the rich-lister town at the peak of the market in October 2021 when it sold for $8.32m.
Built in the 1960s and recently renovated, the property in the coveted double grammar school zone features a swimming pool, plenty of garaging, and seamless outdoor-indoor flow. Photo / Supplied
That record took a whole year to tumble when another property, on Inanga Lane, went for $8.7m in October last year, records show.
The Ranui Road owners had earlier told OneRoof that they had completely remodeled the property, including the garden, and it now featured a new kitchen with scullery, double-glazing, three-car garaging, a hotel-style master suite and an office with its own access for work-from-home options.
The architect for the Ranui Road renovation, John Durkin, of Abri Architecture, also designed a waterfront house in Omaha which set a new record for the beach town of $8.32m in October 2021. Photo / Supplied
The sale comes as Remuera agents report a slow start to 2023 in the suburb, with only eight properties sold in February, three of them at auction, following the extreme weather events that rocked much of the country late January and early February.
The eight Remuera sales – which cover both settled and unsettled transactions – represent a 69% drop on February last year, when 26 properties were sold, and a 86% drop on February 2021.
Agents are reporting signs that the market is picking up for March.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Remuera
