An eye-catching converted warehouse in Auckland’s Grey Lynn sold late last month after just two weeks on the market.
The stylish four-bedroom home with a two-bedroom and a three-bedroom apartment on Westmoreland Street was slated to go to auction at the end of April.
But Bayleys agent Blair Haddow, who marketed the property, said that the buyers, who had been looking for a while, loved the property and made a “very, very good pre-auction offer” so the property did not make it into the auction room.
Tight confidentiality means he cannot reveal the price nor settlement date for the renovated property, which has a CV of $5.45 million. It last changed hands six years ago for $4.25m, OneRoof records show.
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He earlier told OneRoof: “I’ve listed over 500 properties in the area, and I’ve never come across anything like this home. It is unique in every sense, very urban and very different and its potential to generate significant income is rarely seen.”
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The property, a former art studio close to Farro and the popular cafes of Richmond Road, had been renovated into a family home after the vendors bought it six years ago with new wood flooring, a stylish modern kitchen, room for an office or gym and interior steel joinery.
A couple of blocks away, a stylishly renovated four-bedroom villa on Farrar Street, near Grey Lynn Park, also marketed by Haddow, made it to auction. Bidding started at $3m, well above the villa’s CV of $2.75m, with seven bidders in the room the price blew past its on the market value of $3.865 until the hammer came down at $3.8775m.
Five years ago it sold at $1.85m, but the top-notch renovation since then by villa and bungalow experts Jones Architects included a top kitchen, second lounge, immaculately landscaped yard, and central heating.
“Five bidders were there past $3.5m, a lot of them had been looking for quite some time – one of them for two years,” Haddow said.
The renovated warehouse in Westmoreland Street, Grey Lynn, included a four-bedroom main home and two apartments. Photo / Supplied
A four-bedroom home with sea views in Farrar Street, Grey Lynn, sold for $3.8875m after seven bidders competed. Photo / Supplied
“The renovation had only just finished, it was elevated with sea views, next to the park and at the Ponsonby end. There are just not a lot of those sorts of homes – there are six people now still looking with [budgets] of $3m-plus.
“I could sell a dozen of those,” Haddow said. “People want turn-key, with nothing to do, they are very specific.”
Haddow is marketing another immaculately renovated three-bedroom Grey Lynn villa with a second living room, a swimming pool and internal garaging at 12 Dryden Street, this time for price by negotiation. The elevated 217sqm villa with city views on a 472sqm site has a CV of $3.5m and last changed hands for $3.55m in August 2020, according to OneRoof records.
In Devonport, a smartly renovated bungalow on Everest Street had interest from over 50 buyers before selling under the hammer for $2.75m – $800,000 over its $1.9m CV.
Bayleys agent Victoria Mules, who marketed the four-bedroom home on a cross-lease section with Jemma Glancy, said that while there were four keen buyers, just one was bidding on the day.
“We started at $2.4m and then negotiated the price to $2.75m. There were a lot of conditional buyers in the background,” Mules said.
“There are still astute buyers who know good properties and are buying well in premium areas. They know what they want – a well-executed renovation complete with pool, landscaping, lighting and speaker systems. When they see something good, they’ll go for it.”
Mules added that now stock from the summer had been sold, there was not enough properties for her premium buyers with budgets in the mid-$2m to $3m to buy.
“They want to find something before they sell, to have that confidence that there’s more stock to choose from. I’ve got people who have been looking for over six months.”
A renovated four-bedroom bungalow on Everest Street, Devonport, fetched $2.75m, $800,000 above CV. Photo / Supplied
Buyers paid $1.21m for a five-bedroom house on a 10,728sqm block on Albany Heights Road that is zoned rural countryside. Photo / Supplied
Her message to vendors is that for a well done up property, with every detail and landscaping finished “we can get the money out of the market.”
Also selling under the hammer last month was an unusual Albany property: a five-bedroom house on a 10,728sqm bush-filled section on Albany Heights Road that went for $1.21m – $765,000 less than its CV of $1.975m. Records show it last changed hands for $645,000.
Marketed by Barfoot & Thompson agents Alan Vessey and Ronelle Smith, the rare site, zoned rural countryside, was pitched as “escape the infill”.
“It’s an interesting pocket. The vendors bought it 19 years ago. It is covenanted from when it was carved up in the 1980s and can’t be developed, you can’t do anything less than 8000sqm,” Vessey told OneRoof.
“It was bought by overseas Kiwis coming back, they were looking for privacy.”
Vessey said lifestyle buyers priced out of Coatesville were looking at these spots in Albany, which they saw as much more affordable but close to the mall and work at Albany. Last year buyers paid $1.355m and $2m, for similar properties in the area, he said.
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