In Auckland’s auction rooms, the competition for some homes has reached fever-pitch intensity, as buyers hang on to the bitter end and vendors walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars above their reserves.
The number of bids being made on properties is frequently reaching triple figures – a far cry from the ghost-like auctions of six months ago when vendors were lucky to have just one offer.
Auction clearance rates are on the rise, although agents told OneRoof the really competitive auctions tend to centre around homes with very specific qualities.
This week a 1970s three-bedroom deceased estate on a cross-lease site in Northcote Point sold for $1.465 million, well above its CV of $990,000, while in Bucklands Beach, a five-bedroom 1970s house sold within nine days for $2.31m, more than half a million dollars above the reserve.
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And last week a four-bedroom house in Albany sold for $1.636m after a torrid of bids in the auction room.
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Prestige agent Colleen Mangnall, who marketed the deceased estate unit on Rodney Road, in Northcote Point, said she deliberately warned buyers in her listing that the vendors would not be accepting pre-auction offers.
“It was a deceased estate. Really, I hyped up the expectations of grandad’s executors, and they said, ‘Do you think we’ll get $1m? If we get $1.05m we’ll be so happy’,” she said.
While she billed the end unit, which has a private backyard on its half-share of an over 1000sqm site, as “your canvas for unlimited potential”, she was astonished at the interest. More than 200 groups viewed the property and nine buyers registered for the auction.
“At one point I had to stop people coming in. We had young people with little kids looking for an entry to the Point, people wanting to put their stamp on the house and downsizers wanting something flat.
“When I break it all down, it was only a unit, down a drive, but so many people were desperate. We had five building inspections done,” she said.
The eventual winner, who was renting locally, had only seen the unit the day before the auction.
“There were 68 bids. The last one was crying their eyes out they’d missed out,” she said.
A four-bedroom home on Jade Court, in Albany, Auckland, fetched just over $1.6m after 122 bids. Photo / Supplied
The auction for a five-bedroom home on Jandell Crescent, in Bucklands Beach, Auckland, sold within nine days. Photo / Supplied
The sale follows another successful auction of a deceased estate: a four-bedroom home in Jade Court, in Albany. It was listed with Harcourts agents Leigh and Holly Gissing, who told OneRoof the house was in a very sought-after cul de sac where properties rarely came to market.
“This was a deceased estate, a fabulous brick and tile, it had a new kitchen, new carpet, walking distance to Pinehurst school, in zone for Albany Junior and Senior highs,” Leigh Gissing said.
“Properties like this don’t come up often enough. We had 160 groups through, five registered bidders, three active on the day and a huge 122 bids.”
The $1.636m sale price reflected the huge interest in the house.
In Bucklands Beach, Ray White agent Dave McCartney pitched his five-bedroom 1970s house on Jandell Crescent to developers, builders and doer-uppers. He said the $2.31m sale price was “the talk of the town”.
“We’d estimated $1.8m, but we had a pre-auction offer after six days, with the house on the market for only nine days. We’d only had one open home, so about 10 people through, plus some developers who didn’t need to see it.
“There were four active bidders and 57 bids in total. That’s high, very very high, with two bidders going for the last $100,000 in $5000 and $1000s.”
McCartney said the winners, who did not make the pre-auction offer, plan to live in the house and eventually develop it. “But the person who made the pre-auction offer was bidding past that $1.8m. This is why auctions are very important – those pre-auction offers are not necessarily their top price.”
He said that the house was a “niche” property, as it was within walking distance of the desirable Macleans College, was flat with all the services in place for development, adding that the $2.15m CV was “completely irrelevant, but buyers will use them as they’ve got to have something to hang on”.
“There is nothing in the area that substantiates that [price], but we’re seeing a resurgence in developers trying to get in early,” he said.
“Definitely this is the first of many to come, it was truly a remarkable sale.”
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