A studio student apartment in central Auckland sold to an investor for $51,500 – the third lowest auction sale price of the year so far.
And a nearby three-bedroom unit sold for a fraction of its CV in what proved to be a lively round of apartment auctions last week.
The studio unit in the Empire accommodation block, on Whitaker Place, in Grafton, sold above its reserve but well below its CV of $175,000.
Only two properties have sold for less. Both were leasehold apartments on Beach Road, in Auckland CBD, and both had remediation issues. They sold for $22,200 and $25,000 respectively.
Start your property search
The reason for bargain price at Whitaker Place lies in the complicated tenancy arrangements in the block.
City Sales manager Scott Dunn, whose agent James Mairs marketed the property, told OneRoof the Empire was classed as student accommodation and run under a management lease, which prevents unit owners from putting in their own tenants.
Read more:
- Will the year-long house price slide come to an end in autumn?
- The one upside of being in an early recession
- Omaha beachfront property bought for $185,000 is up for grabs
Even the listing was unusual. There were no photos of the interior and buyers weren’t even allowed to look inside in person.
“It sold for above reserve, but they’re hard to sell in these blocks. They are a little bit rundown, people can’t inspect them in person," he said.
“If this were a normal studio apartment in good condition without all the complications, it would go for more like $200,000,” he said.
A one-bedroom 38sqm apartment on Wakefield Street, close to the universities, sold for $295,000 at auction this month. Photo / Supplied
Dunn said that while investors were excited about the return of international students to the city's apartment market, many were unaware of Auckland University’s recent investment in new apartments around Symonds Street, Anzac Avenue and Carlaw Park. One, housing over 900 students, opened just this year while others came on stream after 2020.
“The Carlaw Park has hundreds [907] of new units, they have kitchens and hangout spaces, learning rooms. These old flats [like The Empire] aren’t comparable, they really are at budget-end.”
Dunn said the apartment market was doing better this year. “Sales tend to pick up in March towards the end of the financial year. There’s quite a bit of activity as investors wrap up their affairs at the end of their tax year.
“And more vendors are accepting reality and meeting the market [price]. What often happens in the first months of a change, they stop, and then they come to accept. Buyers had disappeared but now there are new buyers out there.”
Two smart apartments in this Federal Street block, overlooking St Patrick’s cathedral and square, went for $300,000 and $615,500 respectively. Photo / Supplied
Dunn’s agents also sold a three-bedroom, 71sqm leasehold apartment in the Landings block on Ronayne Street, in Parnell, for $142,000 – $688,000 below its CV.
The property had been billed as a “must sell” but that wasn't the reason for the drop on CV. Dunn said the rating valuation seemed to have been calculated as if the property was actually a freehold apartment, but bidders at the auction were aware of the property's value as a leasehold.
“The price was about what we expected. The vendor was very, very happy. When there are eight bidders and that’s where the price lands, then it’s pretty clear that’s the market price,” Dunn said, adding buyers were a mix of investors and owner-occupiers drawn to the apartment’s location between the city centre, university and Parnell.
Dunn said the complex, which included a tennis court, pool, gym and sauna, had ground rent and body corporate fees of just under $18,500 a year, along with rates of just over $2000.
“A place like this doesn’t require a big mortgage, so that is pulling in more buyers. Anything you can buy for cash, even those places like leasehold or remedial that were difficult to sell, they’re coming back strong.”
At the better end of the scale, Dunn said existing apartments were drawing buyers who might earlier have looked at new-builds.
“You can get more for your money with existing apartments, and people tend to shy away from new-builds in a downward trending market,” he said.
A leasehold three-bedroom apartment on Ronayne Street, in Parnell, sold for $142,000. Photo / Supplied
City Sales sold two apartments in Federal Street in a smart block overlooking St Patrick’s Square and opposite the rapidly completing 51 Albert apartment block on the other side of the square.
A third floor studio apartment went for $300,000 while a roomy 92sqm two-bedroom, two-bathroom on the corner of the sixth floor in the same block fetched $615,500 with fierce bidding from two competitors.
Cameron Brain, auction manager for Ray White’s City Realty Group, said that six of seven properties on the company’s mid-March auction slate sold under the hammer, including a Wynyard Quarter apartment that sold for $3m and another three-bedroom apartment on Nugent Street, Grafton, that went for $1.355m.
But bidders were also there for the bargains, he said. Two properties in the Harbour City apartment block on Gore Street went for $85,000 and $91,000 respectively. And a one-bedroom apartment on Union Green got $169,500 while a studio apartment on Vincent Avenue went for $185,000.
“It’s relatively active across a real mix of properties. Buyers in that investor market are always there in the hope of getting a bargain. This week coming up we have 12 lots, plus another in Manurewa on Saturday with a $1 reserve,” he said.
Another apartment, a one-bedroom 38sqm apartment in Wakefield Street, handy to the universities, went for $295,000. Barfoot & Thompson agent Livia Li, who marketed the property with Alan Guo, said that there were three bidders competing for the property, but could not comment further on the sale.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Auckland
