After fierce competition, a smartly done up home in Auckland's Point Chevalier sold under the hammer last week for $1.795 million – nearly $400,000 above CV.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Felicity Scott could not reveal details of the buyers, except to say they were first-home buyers. She said interest was high in the stylishly presented three-bedroom weatherboard cottage on Kanuka Street, Point Chevalier.
“We had wanted to do a two-week campaign, but after we had 50 people through the house in the first weekend, we brought it forward. We had four pre-auction offers within two or three days, it was busy right from the beginning,” Scott said.
She said the 1930s house ticked all the boxes for young families and first-home buyers: beautifully presented, on an elevated site with a bit of lawn for a trampoline.
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“Character homes always sell, it’s not far from a little park and Western Springs, it was a really good house,” she said, adding that 11 bidders registered for the auction.
Bidding for the home, which had last sold in December 2017 for $1.275m, started at $1.5m – $100,000 above CV – and quickly rose to over $1.73m when it was declared on the market. It had a CV of $1.4m.
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“It was fierce, and three bidders kept going over $1.7m. People had been looking for a while, and had missed out on earlier properties,” Scott said. Several other bidders were prepared to pay $1.6m, but no higher, she said, either because of bank lending limits or because they still had a property to sell and couldn’t get bridging finance.
Scott said there was not a lot of new stock on the market.
Over 50 groups had viewed the well-presented house with good elevation and a front yard at Kanuka Street, Point Chevalier. Photo / Supplied
Buyers were drawn to the stylish presentation and location of the 1940s house. Photo / Supplied
“The good properties are selling, not necessarily every property. Election and school holidays have put a spanner in the works.”
Earlier in the year, first-home buyers were still snaffling properties in Point Chevalier for a lot less.
At the beginning of September, a three-bedroom place on a cross-lease site on Moa Road, around the corner from Kanuka, sold at auction for $1.2m – the same price that a character house on the front of the same section sold for in June.
“Both went to first-home buyers,” said the Barfoot & Thompson agent Ron Maman, who brought the properties to auction.
He said the two owners had each bought the adjoining properties on Moa Road, which are zoned for suburban density, in April 2022 for $1.153m. OneRoof records show they were listed as a development pair earlier this year, but failed to sell.
Earlier in September first-home buyers snapped up a three-bedroom house on Moa Road, Point Chevalier, for $1.2m. Photo / Supplied
“They were friends who bought at the same time to develop, but they realised they were not going to do that. I sold the front one in June and the back one last month, both to first-home buyers,” he said, adding that buyers were keen to get into the inner-city suburbs and this part of Point Chev was the most affordable.
“A lot [of first-home buyers] have $1.1m to $1.3m, that’s the threshold, it tapers off up to $1.5m.
“A lot of them are suffering from exhaustion, we don’t have the amount [of stock] of three or four years ago. The September sale, we only had eight or nine viewings, the owner was pleased to get more than they paid in 2022,” Maman said.
And buyer enthusiasm has brought forward the auction for another smartly presented two-bedroom 1980s house on a cross lease site at 12 Tui Street, also in Point Chev.
The auction for the house, which has been smartly updated since it last sold for $1.256m a year ago, has been brought forward to Tuesday after a pre-auction offer was accepted. Marketing agent Jono King, of Bayleys, said the recent refurbishment by “talented sellers” was meticulous and sophisticated, and noted that the sellers have purchased elsewhere.
“We had 36 groups through the first open homes, that’s really strong. There’s a little bit on the market at this price level, but we’re seeing interest upwards of CV of $1.36m,” King said.
“It’s an immaculate property and first-home buyers love that all the work has been done.”
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