It was sold as a dream house, and now it's a dream proposal.
A first-home buyer celebrated the purchase of a four-bedroom home in Auckland's Point Chevalier this week with a surprise marriage proposal to his girlfriend right at the moment the sold sign went up.
In a video posted on Facebook by Barfoot & Thompson agents Kitty Long and Jacqui Vaughan-Kells, the buyer Nick Su, with his girlfriend Wendy Ou beside him, peels off a covered sticker on the real estate sign outside their new home on Kiwi Road in Point Chevalier.
She was expecting to see the word “Sold” underneath but instead what she got was his proposal: “Will you marry me?”
Start your property search
Su then dropped to his knees and held out a ring, and she said yes.
Su, 30, told OneRoof he had known for years that he wanted to marry the 25-year-old and had been waiting for the moment when they bought their first home together to pop the question.
“She was always asking why won’t you make a proposal to me and I said, ‘wait, wait, wait, wait’.”
The construction site manager came up with the the idea of replacing the SOLD sign with the four life-changing words.
When Ou ripped off the backing to the sticker to reveal the words “Will you marry me?” at the weekend, it came as a huge surprise.
They were both still on cloud nine, he said.
Read more:
- Tony Alexander: Where buyers are in a panic about house prices
- 'If I got an extra $70,000, that's huge – that’s a lot of people’s annual salary'
- Overseas buyer shells out $11m-plus for super-car fan's 'crazy mansion'
The couple had been looking at properties in both central and west Auckland for about a year to get an idea of what they both wanted and what was available, but only started making offers last month once they got their residency visas.
They had already missed out on a home in Massey and ended up buying the Point Chevalier home the same day they viewed it.
“It was a rush,” he said.
Vaughan-Kells wrote on Facebook: “The purchaser wanted to propose to his lovely lady at the celebration of buying their dream home. William [Zhang] from Highland Park branch arranged the custom sticker and we applied it prior to their arrival.
“Of course she expected to see a SOLD sign but was treated to a very spectacular proposal instead. Love always wins."
Long also praised the romantic resourcefulness of Zhang, adding: “Congratulations to the happy couple on not only acquiring a new home but also embarking on a journey of love and togetherness.
“This is truly a beautiful and magical moment to cherish!"
The couple in a still from the video posted by the agents. Photo / Supplied
The four-bedroom home the couple bought on Kiwi Road, in Point Chevalier, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
The four-bedroom home had been listed with Vaughan-Kells and colleague Kath Barnes and had a CV of $1.525m,
Vaughan-Kells told OneRoof that the house had sold in less than a week, with the owners receiving five offers on it in the space of three days.
Vaughan-Kells could not reveal the sale price of the property, but said that both vendors and buyers were very happy with the price.
She said most of the interest was from first-home buyers. Many had budgets stretching from $1 million to $1.2m, some up to $1.3m with the help of parents' funds, and she said most buyers were expecting to buy at or below CV.
"We've got four buyers who missed out. I'm saying to vendors, 'Don't wait until spring to list. We've got buyers now'."
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Auckland
