A Christchurch property has smashed multiple records with its $4 million price tag, making it the most expensive property to sell under the hammer this year and the highest ever sale price for the suburb.
The five-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Halton Street, in Strowan, was snatched up by a Canterbury family, who had been looking for a year for their next home.
They fought off four other local buyers in Harcourts Gold’s auction room on Thursday including two who actively bid on it.
The auction opened at $2.5m with a vendor bid and steadily rose in mainly $25,000 to $50,000 increments.
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Harcourts Gold auctioneer Mark Morrison said once the home was announced on the market at $3.8m, just two buyers remained to battle it out. The sale price exceeded the vendors’ expectations by $200,000.
“The bids were relatively large and strong,” Morrison told OneRoof.
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The $4m sale price exceeds Strowan’s previous record price of $3.76m paid at auction in November last year for a 1920s home on a 3339sqm section on Normans Road. The sale price is also the highest achieved at auction for a Christchurch home this year.
Morrison said the Halton Street house was a standout in the market.
“It’s the sort of home that pops up on the market and buyers go, ‘Jeez, we’ve got to secure this’. That sort of home you jump on.”
Harcourts Holmwood agent Kathryn Picton-Warlow had been working with the buyers for a year, searching for the perfect family home for them and their two daughters.
A Canterbury family had been house hunting for one year before settling on the Halton Street property. Photo / Supplied
The buyers were moving from the country into the city and were looking for a home with space, which Halton Street offered. The swimming pool and tennis court were also big drawcards.
Picton-Warlow told OneRoof her buyers felt Strowan was an up-and-coming suburb, and offered more value for their money.
The same property in neighbouring Fendalton, she said, would cost about $6m. “They just really valued having a sense of space and larger land,” she said.
“They were happy to pay up for it too because they knew the values and just really liked the positioning, the northwest facing section – just a lovely aspect to it.”
Harcourts Gold listing agent Cameron Bailey said the sale showed the strength of demand for properties with good landholdings.
“You can’t beat big land is what it tells me. It pulled people out of the woodwork. The land protects your future values really,” he told OneRoof.
“It’s always been the way. Land goes up in value, buildings depreciate so the more land you’ve got the better off you are, and the more land you’ve got the easier it is for people to substantiate the price.”
One of the underbidders on Halton Street is now viewing a five-bedroom, three-bathroom property at 58 Clyde Road, in Fendalton, which is on a slightly smaller 1834sqm riverside section.
Bailey said properties in the higher end of the market were a bit slower to sell than those priced between $600,000 and $1.5m, but “good properties like Halton Street were always busy”.
The owners were selling because their kids had left home and they were downsizing.
“It’s the sort of property you buy for 10 to 15 years while your kids are at that age and when your kids leave you downsize.”
It was a similar story for an iconic property on Hardwicke Street, in Sumner, which sold under the hammer last Thursday for $2.25m.
A Sumner family is moving around the corner to their new home on Hardwicke Street, which they paid $2.25m for. Photo / Supplied
Bayleys listing agent Marilyn Still, who marketed the property with colleague Rosie Petronelli, said renovated family homes on large sections rarely came up for sale in Sumner.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home attracted more than 60 groups through the week campaign and saw three buyers turn up to Thursday’s auction. Bidding opened at $2m, and the property sold for $2.25m.
Everyone looking at the home was local. Two of the bidders even knew each other, and the new owners lived just around the corner, with their children attending the school across the road.
Still sold the home 24 years ago to the current owners, who are moving to a smaller property nearby. The owners before them had also lived there for about 20 years.
Sumner was more expensive than other Christchurch suburbs, with properties on the Esplanade typically fetching higher prices, she said.
“Once you get here – you move up or you downsize – but mostly people stay. It’s got so much to offer,” she told OneRoof.
“Number one, it’s got the beach. Number two, everyone can walk everywhere unless they are up the hill of course, and it’s a great community.”
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