An “affordable” suburb in Queenstown-Lakes has recorded its first $2-million plus sale amid rising buyer interest from Auckland and overseas.
A six-bedroom new-build property on Walton Way, in the Shotover Country subdivision, sold under the hammer last week for $2.1m, eclipsing the suburb’s previous price record of $1.865m.
Six registered bidders competed to buy the house and accompanying unit, which Harcourts listing agent Maria Rosa had billed as a home-and-income property the vendor, a local builder, needed to sell before starting his next project.
The auction was fast-paced and tense, with the bidding starting at $1.7m and the property announced on the market at $2.02m. The final sale price was a surprise, exceeding the vendor's expectations.
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Rosa told OneRoof there had been a lot of interest in the property, which had never been lived in. A total of 79 groups came through the open homes, she said, adding that she had also fielded enquiries from Australia and Singapore.
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The new owners shared their time between Auckland and Queenstown and had only viewed the property a few days before the auction while down in Queenstown on holiday, she said.
Rosa said the buyers already owned several properties in Shotover Country and planned to keep the main four-bedroom house as their Queenstown base and rent out the two-bedroom unit.
The sale price was an impressive feat for the subdivision, which was aimed at young families and first-home buyers when it was developed in 2012. First-home buyers were even given $6000 off the asking price if they bought a section there. They were in high demand with people snapping up some of the sections priced between $192,000 and $345,000 within days, if not hours, of some of the stages being released in 2014 and 2017.
The four-bedroom home with a two-bedroom flat on Walton Way was very high-spec for the subdivision. Photo / Supplied
A home-and-income property on George Drive, in Shotover Country, sold for $1.865m in January. Photo / Supplied
Rosa said the Walton Way property was beyond the reach of most first-home buyers because it was so high-spec and positioned on the reserve. “It was just a very unique home to the area,” she said.
“It had a media room, an office, a separate laundry, heated floors, a heat pump in every room, multiple light switches in bedrooms so you don’t have to get out of bed to run the lights off. So, it probably wasn’t a first-home buyer’s product anyway.”
Harcourts Queenstown sales manager Priscilla Uhrle said the suburb still catered for first-home buyers, although entry-level budgets for a stand-alone home anywhere in Queenstown usually needed to start at $1m.
“The suburb still caters to [first-time buyers], but it’s interesting it achieves these premiums for a higher-spec home.”
A three-bedroom, one-bathroom home on Tonis Terrace, in Shotover Country, was snapped up by first-home buyers for $1.2m this week. Photo / Supplied
Earlier this week a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home on Tonis Terrace, in Shotover Country, was snapped up by a first-home buyer for $1.2m at a Harcourts auction. The property, which last changed hands for $1m in July 2022, had only been on the market for a week when an acceptable offer of $1.2m was made to bring the auction forward.
“We had four registered cash unconditional buyers in the room wanting to buy,” Uhrle said.
“We are seeing investors creep into the market, but it’s certainly a much better landscape than it was perhaps pre-Covid when investors were really heavily buying.”
She said another property that would attract first-home buyers was a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 47 Peterley Road, in Shotover Country. The home, which has an RV of $940,000, is being marketed as “an exceptional opportunity that won’t break the bank” and is being sold by deadline.
Uhrle said both Shotover Country and Hanley’s Farm were still very popular with first-home buyers and both had primary schools in the centre of the subdivisions that were a further drawcard for young families.
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