A 1950s house in Auckland’s double grammar school zone sold under the hammer this week for $5.3 million to buyers who hadn't even stepped inside the property.
Bayleys agent Lorraine Young, who marketed the four-bedroom home on Mount St John Avenue, in Epsom, told OneRoof the buyers were a local Epsom family. “They just drove by and they loved it. They went online and did the 3D virtual tour, but we just couldn’t coordinate times for them to go through,” she said, adding that they managed to walk through after the auction.
Young said some 158 groups of buyers had viewed the property during its three-week campaign. Most of them, she said, quickly realised that the $3.65m on the CV was not enough to secure the house, as that number was set in 2021, well before significant improvements were made to the house.
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The auction was fiercely fought, she said. “We started the morning with six registered bidders, but by the time the auction opened we had 11 or 12. Six of those were bidding after the opening bid of $4m.
“It was very fast, once it was declared on the market in the mid $4m, it got to $5.3m very quickly.”
The buyers of the Mount St John house had liked what they saw on the 3D walk-through, but only saw the inside once they’d bought it. Photo / Supplied
The 1950s house, which had a swimming pool, was stylishly renovated. Photo / Supplied
Young said the house was special, drawing in buyers who were new to the market as well as those who had been looking for some time.
“We had people from Mount Eden, from Remuera, several of them hadn’t yet sold their homes. You don’t often get a full site, that beautiful feel of indoor/outdoor living, it was just a magical property,” she said.
Buyers are there for the special properties, Young said.
Earlier in February, she also sold a five-bedroom 352sqm house on Victoria Avenue for around $5m (the property had a CV $5.1m) after two weeks of being on the open market.
The Victoria Ave house, rebuilt in cedar in 2020, sat on a 523sqm site with a swimming pool, but Young said buyers fell in love with the 30sqm walk-in dressing room and luxurious bathroom with his and hers showers.
A five-bedroom house on Victoria Avenue sold for around $5m in just over two weeks. Photo / Supplied
A five-bedroom bungalow on a double section on Kitenui Avenue, Mount Albert, sold after just nine days on the market "well in excess of $4m". Photo / Supplied
At the other end of the double grammar zone, Young has listed a cottage at 20 Rautangi Road, Mount Eden, which she said would be entry level for the zone. The pretty two-bedroom cottage on a 655sqm site, which goes to auction on March 13, has a CV of $1.3m.
Demand is also high outside of double grammar zone for special properties.
In Mount Albert, Ray White agent Rachel Berry sold a pair of properties on Kitenui Avenue in just nine days when an early offer brought forward the tender process.
While she could not give a price for the properties, which comprised a smart five-bedroom bungalow and an empty garden on the second title, she revealed they sold for “well in excess of $4m”.
“The buyers had been looking on and off for over seven years. They really rated the double site," Berry said.
“There have only been three sales in this part of Mount Albert in three years in excess of $4m. The right buyers know the value.”
Another four-bedroom Spanish-Mission-style house on Grande Avenue, which had 120 inspections sold after auction for an undisclosed sum. It had a CV of $2.175m. Berry said the property, which went on the market around Waitangi weekend, had 120 groups looking at it, including 50 on the first Sunday open home
"We always say an auction is about establishing the value, but it’s post-auction that proves it.”
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