The bonus apartment from 2019 season of The Block NZ has sold to first-home buyers, OneRoof can reveal.
The ground floor unit at 516 New North Road, Kingsland, was one of the apartments renovated in the hit TV show but it was out of sight for much of the 2019 series and used only for team challenges.
It was listed for sale at the end of last month with Barfoot & Thompson agents Erin and Neil Dayal, and was picked up this week for an undisclosed price.
Erin Dayal told OneRoof that the vendors were thrilled their two-bedroom apartment was going to first-home buyers. “We presented three offers. the process worked,” she said.
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The vendors, Tom and Emma, told OneRoof earlier this month they had come across the apartment in the former Kingsland Fire Station by accident.
“We didn’t watch that season, but were having coffee in Kingsland and saw the open home sign. We took a look and said, ‘This is incredible’. We came back the next day and had an offer in within the week,” Emma said. “We had to go back and watch a few episodes of the show on YouTube.”
The apartment did make a brief appearance in the show, when the bathroom got a luxury makeover. It didn’t go to auction in the show’s grand finale but was sold for $897,500 several months later.
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The vendors told OneRoof they repainted some walls and replaced the furniture with their own, while plants on the clever garden balcony and corner patio have flourished over the last four years. On the balcony, floor-to-ceiling doors slide open to a one metre-wide railed garden for a lush outlook in the urban space, while the patio off the bedroom and living room affords grandstand views of Eden Park.
Dayal told OneRoof that interest in the apartment had been high. “The market is definitely bubbling and picking up, and the place that is moving the fastest is that first-home buyer market,” she said earlier this month.
The luxurious bathroom won the bathroom challenge after it was renovated by previous season winners. Photo / Supplied
Floor-to-ceiling glass sliders open to a metre-wide plant-filled balcony for a green outlook while another patio is shared by a living room and bedroom. Photo / Supplied
This week’s deal follows the Dayals’ successful sale of a three-bedroom apartment in the same block for $1.65 million earlier this year.
That sub-penthouse was renovated by season eight favourites Ethan Ordish and Sam Whatarangi. It had first sold at its reserve price on auction night, so the pair failed to make any money from their time on the show, although they did pick up the People’s Choice Award, a Suzuki S-Cross Prestige.
Another apartment in the same block was listed at the end of 2022, but was taken off the market at the end of April after failing to find a buyer. It is now being rented out.
Two other apartments in the Kingsland building resold earlier.
Apart from painting a few walls and adding their own furniture, the owners have not made any changes to the apartment. Photo / Supplied
The bedroom and living room open to a tiny patio which has flourishing plants. Photo / Supplied
Another ground floor apartment, renovated by Stacy Heyman and Adam Middleton, was resold in 2021 by former Block producer and television chief Julie Christie and her daughter for $2.1m - a $620,000 gain on their purchase soon after the show. And Sophie and Mikaere Gardiner’s apartment that had sold for $1.6m two weeks after the show auction, resold just a year later for $1.515m.
The Block NZ took a break this year, with producers citing the “challenging housing market” as the reason for the hiatus. Its return to TV screens in 2024 has not yet been confirmed.
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