The housing market appears to be picking up in Auckland's Hobsonville Point, with an agent telling OneRoof that there were lines out the door at a recent showing of a three-bedroom terrace house in the suburb.
The 18-month-old house on Desalt Drive, in the Airfield Quarter of the master-planned development, sold under the hammer last month for $1.13 million - $90,000 above its CV.
Ray White Remuera agent Frazer Mackenzie-Johnson said he received two pre-auction offers within days of the house hitting the market, adding that the first open home for the property was “like a Black Friday sale".
“We had 20 groups through, 33 people, with lines out the door. We had the first offer after the first open home, the second a day later.”
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Mackenzie-Johnson, who marketed the home with colleague Michael Zhang, said there were three registered bidders at the auction.
He said they were typical of Hobsonville Point buyers - a mix of downsizers moving out from other suburbs and young professional couples.
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“One couple had been looking in Remuera and Onehunga, but when they visited the area they decided this was where they wanted to be," he told OneRoof.
“It was a fantastic modern chic property, it looked like an Ikea catalogue.”
Mackenzie-Johnson added that while the vendors were moving out of the area, most of the sales he and Zhang make are for Hobsonville Point residents moving within the neighbourhood.
“We recently had a couple trading up from a two bedroom to a four-bedroom 200 metres up the road. They literally moved the small boxes on foot.
The three-bedroom end terrace house on Desalt Drive, Hobsonville Point, attracted buyers from the city and within the neighbourhood. Photo / Supplied
One agent has dubbed the Hobsonville Point area, which has a high number of tech and IT workers, the 'Silicon Valley' of Auckland. Photo / Supplied
“I call it the Silicon Valley of New Zealand. A majority of the buyers and residents work in the tech field or IT, so they can work remotely or work in the CBD. It’s a clean and tidy neighbourhood with great facilities, it’s at the cutting edge of the building code."
Mackenzie-Johnson said that the week after the auction two other Hobsonville Point properties went under contract, a five-bedroom standalone house for $1.5m and a four-bedroom plus study standalone house for between $1.2m and $1.3m.
He added that open home numbers were up to eight or nine per day, more than double the typical numbers last winter.
He said many of the buyers were also attracted by the sustainable flood-proof design after the summer deluges flooded older Auckland suburbs, where individual homes have detention systems and rain and grey water tanks and the public areas use swales and wetlands to control water.
A four-bedroom home on 68 Joshua Carder Drive is asking $1.199m. Photo / Supplied
A three-bedroom sub-penthouse in The Ovation on Hudson Road will be auctioned on May 31. Photo / Supplied
Others were anxious to buy now, before their pre-approval on finance expires.
Zhang and Mackenzie-Johnson are also marketing a freestanding four-bedroom house at 68 Joshua Carder Drive asking $1.199m which has a garage and exclusive off-street parking and a luxury three-bedroom sub-penthouse in The Ovation, 45 Hudson Bay Road which is being brought to auction May 31.
The former defence base at Hobsonville Point which began development in 2008, is nearing completion. By the end of 2024, some 11,000 residents will be living there in over 4000 new homes, 3000 of which are now complete. New building around the waterfront of the original Launch Bay includes apartments along the waterfront, with a luxury 30-apartment block called Jimmy's Point going on the market this week.
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