A four-bedroom penthouse in central Auckland with a CV of $1.825 million failed to sell under the hammer today when bidding only reached $350,000.
The two-storey apartment in The Peaks, on 117 Victoria Street West, which was bought by the seller for $1.28m nearly eight years ago, has remedial issues.
The listing agents told OneRoof last week that the property was being sold at an “extreme discount”.
The first bid of $200,000 quickly knocked out most of the 14 registered bidders and caused a stir amongst the larger crowd there to watch. But when bidding stalled at $350,000, the vendor gave City Sales auctioneer Ted Ingram permission to declare he was looking for $550,000 and would be prepared to negotiate with the highest bidder.
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Scott Dunn, sales manager for City Sales, who had earlier told OneRoof that he was encouraging anyone with “$100,000 in their bank account” to come along to the auction, said that the $200,000 gap to reach reserve might be a bit too much. The property is still listed for sale on OneRoof.
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Some of the crowd were owners of other apartments in The Peak, keen to see where the price would land, while others were experienced traders.
Dunn had earlier told OneRoof likely buyers would be people who work in the industry, or who buy into buildings that need remediation, while others would be other owners in the building, who are up to speed with the remediation progress and costs.
He said that the vendor, who lives out of town, had bought the penthouse in mid-2015 but he now wants to get out. He said if the property didn't have remedial issues, it would probably be worth $2m to $3m.
The apartment boasts two living rooms, four bathrooms across two levels, close-up views of Sky Tower and the Sky City entertainment precinct as well as views of the harbour. The decor is dated, however.
The Peaks apartment block has remedial issues, with the owner of the penthouse facing building costs that may spiral up from $1m. Photo taken in 2017. Photo / File
The penthouse kitchen and four bathrooms would probably be updated along with the exterior remedial work. Photo / File
The apartment has up-close views of Sky City and the Sky Tower. Photo / File
Dunn said the Body Corporate's early estimates of the share of remediation costs for the apartment, which comes with a generous four carparks, is about $1m but this may well change as it was early days.
Dunn said that while the property wasn’t “super, super high end” compared to new luxury downtown blocks like The Pacifica and Seascape, there were experienced buyers who could spend the remedial money on the building and then modernise the dated kitchen, bathrooms and décor.
Dunn said the apartment would get close to $2000 per week in rent – until remediation works start. He added that in some blocks around the city, tenants even remain in place during the building period.
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