Otara properties that were fetching dizzying $1million-plus prices at the height of the market have plunged to around $700,000 with some owners kicking themselves they didn’t sell earlier.
The average property value in Otara has tumbled more than 20% ($193,000) in the last 12 months to $751,000, OneRoof-Valocity property figures show.
Ray White salesperson Adrian Chhour recalls bringing an auction for a property on Clayton Avenue in Otara forward one day to beat an OCR announcement in December 2021.
The property sold to a developer for a “crazy” $1.1m and the next day properties in Manurewa that would have fetched between $1.1m and $1.3m were only reaching $800,000 and $900,000 at auction. “Literally the next day properties changed overnight,” Chhour said. “We beat the timing of it by just one day.”
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In the last year property prices have fallen around the country and Otara has been no exception with Chhour adding houses that would have easily got $1m two years ago would now only sell for about $700,000.
“Most of my clients who are still in Otara are kind of kicking themselves that they didn’t sell in the peak of the market.”
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He knows of a property owner who purchased a property when prices were high with the intention of doing it up and flipping it, but who would, in the current market, struggle to get what he paid for it even after the renovations.
But there are traders who are now back in the market looking to snap up some bargains from investors who were selling properties they have owned for more than five years due to the rising costs, Harcourts agent Alex Dunn said.
“Property traders pick them up at a pretty good price and they don’t need too much work to them as they’ve got solid bones so they can do a quick renovation on them and get them back to the market for first-home buyers.”
A home on Antrim Crescent, in Otara, Auckland, has just sold for $735,000 after a full renovation. Photo / Supplied
They would then test the market with the renovated property to see if they could sell it and if not they would rent it out usually getting a good income from it, he said.
Dunn sold a three-bedroom home with a double garage on Antrim Crescent in Otara for $570,000 in January which he estimated would have fetched the early $900,000s at the peak of the market.
“I know there’s one across the road that they are wanting big dollars for, but it’s just sitting there.”
Not everyone is prepared to meet the market, he said.
A property at 30 Franklyne Road is also being marketed as “a development opportunity not to be missed” and already has resource and building consent for five five-bedroom houses on the 986sqm site.
The property has an asking price of $1.55m and last changed hands in September 2021 for $1.585m after the auction attracted interest from eight developers.
Other listings such as a house at 1 Luke Place and another at 50 Cobham Crescent are appealing to developers by highlighting the fact that the property is zoned for terraced housing and apartments or mixed housing urban zoning.
Ray White Manurewa salesperson Tom McCartney said the price drops in Otara are in line with what's happening in the rest of the South Auckland market and it's now the owner-occupiers who are probably likely to pay more than the developers.
And while the prices have pulled back, a standard three-bedroom house on a 600 to 700sqm section that would have sold for $550,000 in early 2020 is still selling for around $700,000.
“So over a three-year period and you took out the big spike in between and you've gone from $550,000 to $700,000 then you would probably be quite happy with that return, but it's just the fact that in between a lot of them have gone up to $900,000 and a $1m that people feel potentially like they've lost money and missed out when there was just a short period of time in the market when it went crazy for a bit.”
Renovated properties or those in tidy condition are attracting first-home buyers or owner-occupiers looking to upsize from a smaller unit, while do-ups were being bought by investors or renovators who then spent time and money bringing the house up to a liveable condition and to the healthy homes standards.
Just this week McCartney sold a fully-renovated four-bedroom property at another Antrim Crescent address for $735,000. It last changed hands in December 2022 for $575,000.
Another property with a large home and smaller dwelling at 34 Waipapa Crescent is being auctioned by his agency later this month and would suit investors due to the property offering double rent or extended families.
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