A luxury home designed by one of New Zealand’s leading architects sold last month for $4.479 million after a tense four-hour-long negotiation which the listing agent said was akin to “pulling teeth”.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Jonathan Viljoen told OneRoof that the sale was worth the effort.
The five-bedroom property on Long Drive, in Auckland’s St Heliers, had passed in at auction but Viljoen saw a potential deal.
The South African agent and his colleague Zanle Louw had picked up the listing in May after the owners’ previous attempts to sell in 2022 had faltered. He told OneRoof he had worked in a depressed market before and knew how to get a different result.
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“I was used to these markets from Johannesburg, which fluctuates daily, let alone monthly or yearly,” he said.
“We identified at least two buyers who were ready to bid, and we nurtured them.” He said the actual buyers had lost interest halfway through the campaign – “the wife wasn’t too keen on a couple of aspects” – but he took on the challenge to win them over and provide them with solutions.
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The mid-century home, designed by James Hackshaw, of the famed Group Architects, had a CV of $4.85m and last changed hands in 2008 for $1.74m.
Come auction day, he had two registered bidders, and 11 interested buyers waiting in the wings. Bidding opened at $3.5m and climbed fast before hitting a ceiling at $4.15m, after which one of the bidders dropped out.
The buyers then increased their offer to $4.4m, but the property passed in. The buyers weren’t keen to budge from their last offer, telling Viljoen the market had spoken. “I said, ‘Well, this is the unconditional market and tomorrow you’re going to be playing up against the conditional market where we’ve got 11 buyers who were eagerly waiting for this property to pass in’.”
It took another four hours of negotiation, with Viljoen determined not to leave until a deal was done. “It was like pulling teeth,” he said.
The agents gradually negotiated the buyers up to $4.479m, but it wasn’t enough for the vendors, who were $100,000 short of the purchase price of their next house.
The Long Drive home was designed by James Hackshaw, of the famed Group Architects. Photo / Supplied
Viljoen then contacted the agents of that home and negotiated a lower price to get his deal over the line. “Negotiation to me is about collaboration and we thought there might be a bit of meat left there.” That proved the case and both deals were completed.
He told OneRoof agents needed to be tenacious in the current market. “It’s not about relying on the auction process solely to get it done, because the auctions that are passing in still have the potential to get a good deal. It’s for us to go the extra mile and get it done.”
Viljoen said the $4m-plus market in St Heliers and surrounding suburbs hadn’t been as affected by the economic downturn as other segments had.
What’s more, most of the higher-end sales involved buyers and sellers who were upsizing or downsizing within the suburb. Both the vendor and the buyer in this case were moving within St Heliers. “There’s a lot of cross-pollination in the Bays.”
He said there wasn’t sufficient stock at upper price points to meet demand. “There are a lot of buyers out there, but not a lot of stock, because everyone’s waiting for something to change in the market. A lot of buyers don’t necessarily have to rely on finance. They’ve already got the equity. The interest rates don’t necessarily affect them and they’re ready to buy properties.”
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