Billing their five-bedroom South Auckland home as a “marriage split sale” seems to have paid off for its de-coupling owners when it sold under the hammer on Tuesday.

The two-storey brick and tile house on Multose Drive, in Flat Bush, sold for $1.272 million – $12,000 above the reserve – after six bidders registered for the sale. The house had a CV of $1.3m and records show it had last sold nine years ago for $800,000.

Ray White agent Rubal Singh, who marketed the property, said that honesty paid off for his vendors.

“[Breaking up] is not a very good truth, but it is what it is,” Singh said.

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“People like to cash in on others’ misfortune, it is unfortunate. But the owners are happy to move on.”

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Singh had earlier told OneRoof he always encouraged owners to state their motivation for selling whether it be a deceased estate, mortgagee sale or divorce to show buyers they were serious about selling and to encourage people to attend the auction.

“We had 45 to 50 groups through, with more lodging their interest. That’s two or three times more than we would normally get,” he said, adding that the fact that the sale price was reasonable for the tidy property, which needed some work and was on a small 314sqm section.

27 Multose Drive, Flat Bush, Manukau, Auckland

The house on Multose Drive attracted some 50 groups at open homes, about twice or three times the normal crowds. Photo / Supplied

27 Multose Drive, Flat Bush, Manukau, Auckland

An immaculately presented four-bedroom home on Bowscale Place, Northpark in Botany, Auckland sold for $1.865m - $265,000 above CV. Photo / Supplied

“I guess people like cashing up on other people’s misery, so I don’t know if it helped or not, but that’s actually the truth,” Singh earlier said. “Mortgagee auctions and deceased estates – people know that it will be selling, that people are not just testing the waters, but they are going to sell.”

Singh said the buyers were a family moving from Papatoetoe to Flat Bush, looking for a big family home. He said homeowners splitting the proceeds of the large house sale would struggle to find a home for half that price in the suburb.

“In Flat Bush you’d be looking at $850,000-plus for a two-bedroom terrace house. If you’re looking with $500,000, even $800,000 you’d be looking at South Auckland suburbs like Papatoetoe, Otahuhu, Takanini or Mangere,” he said.

The Multose Drive house is the second property he has listed in the last four months that was being sold due to a relationship breakdown. However, Singh didn’t think there was a trend and instead put it down to “one of those unfortunate situations”.

Across in south east Auckland Barfoot & Thompson auction rooms, an upsurge in buyers at open homes and in auction rooms has seen several properties selling for sums well above CV.

27 Multose Drive, Flat Bush, Manukau, Auckland

Last week a three-bedroom house in Carriage Close, Northpark, sold for $1.788m at auction. Photo / Supplied

27 Multose Drive, Flat Bush, Manukau, Auckland

A three-bedroom house on Ben Nevis Place sold for $1.7m. Photo / Supplied

This week a four-bedroom brick and tile home on on Bowscale Place, in Northpark, Botany, sold for $1.865m – $265,000 above CV.

The property, listed with Wayne and Lisa Parfitt, had attracted more than 10 registered bidders.

Two other homes listed with the Parfitts also saw fierce auction competition: a three-bedroom brick and tile on Carriage Close, Northpark, went for $1.788m – $136,000 above its on-the-market price and well above its $1.5m CV; and another on Ben Nevis Place, with a pool, sold for $1.7m – $80,000 above reserve and $75,000 above CV.

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