A Christchurch home had luck on its side when it sold for $1.115 million at a heated auction last week.
The owner had bought the three-bedroom property on Edgeware Road, in Saint Albans, for $1.016m, at the height of the boom but was now trading up for a bigger home.
Harcourts Holmwood listing agent John Fulton said the sale was a standout, noting that it had grown almost $100,000 in value.
“It was a really good result. The owner was thrilled,” he told OneRoof.
Start your property search
Fulton said property values in Christchurch had remained relatively “consistent” during the wider market downturn.
Cantabrians, he said, were more reserved about the levels of debt they took on, which meant they could absorb higher interest rates more easily.
The city was also continuing to attract out-of-town buyers and there was still earthquake cash “sloshing around”.
“I think the biggest thing with the Christchurch market is people will sell, but there doesn’t seem to be the pain out there,” he said.
Discover more:
- Iconic home sells for $4.4m after tough negotiation
- ‘We’re sick of this market’ - sellers quit as house sales plunge
- Tony Alexander: Why the era of crazy house price rises is over
“Whereas I feel like in Auckland you have these real big boom-bust markets because ultimately once the interest rates creep up massively you have a lot of people who go, ‘Oh we just can’t afford the mortgage and we have to sell at whatever price we can get’.”
Other homeowners had listed properties they bought at the peak of market, such as a unit at 1/34 Holly Road, in Saint Albans, but he said they would probably only sell if they could get more than what they paid for it.
An entry-level house on Roydon Drive, in Templeton, also managed to buck the trend by selling earlier this month for $775,000 after some minor improvements. The price was almost $190,000 more than what it had last sold for in February 2021.
Of the 12 properties called at Bayleys auction last week, four sold under the hammer including two bought within the last five years. A seven-bedroom home on Westmont Street was purchased as an investment property in December 2019 for $728,000 and sold under the hammer on Thursday for $950,000, while a two-bedroom, one-bathroom place on Twynham Place, in Aranui, was bought for $372,000 in July 2023 and sold exactly a year later for $410,000.
The Edgeware Road home's modern feel, architectural design and sought-after location was a hit with downsizers. Photo / Supplied
Bayleys agent Adam Heazlewood said some houses bought during the boom were making a profit, but overall house values in the city were slightly down on peak levels.
He said the difference between profit and loss often depended on the individual property and whether it had a point of difference or not.
Harcourts Gold salesperson Cameron Bailey agreed: “There are always exceptions to every rule, but generally speaking if someone bought a house in 2021, they would be very lucky to get their money back on what they paid for it.”
He knew of a property that sold at auction this month for several hundred thousand dollars less than what the owners paid for it a few years ago.
“We are probably not in the same situation as Auckland or Wellington. It hasn’t come back as much, but it certainly has come back.”
Buyers were still turning up at open homes and auctions, he said, but they were being selective about what they bought and how much they paid.
A two-bedroom unit on Holly Road, in Saint Albans, that was purchased for $652,000 in February 2022 is also back on the market. Photo / Supplied
“We are seeing some owners who are trying to get too much for their house in this market and they just don’t get it, whereas a few years ago they would just sit there wait and they would eventually get the money, but it’s different now.
“The buyers at the moment are a lot more educated and they are happy to wait for the right house at the right price.”
Valocity senior analyst Wayne Shum said Christchurch hadn’t experienced the same highs and lows as other large cities due to its affordable house prices.
He said buyers in Christchurch were taking on less debt than those in Auckland. “You borrow $1m in Auckland, but in Christchurch you borrow $500,000 to buy roughly the same house. Christchurch is much more resilient to the interest rate increases.”
It was also one of the last markets to hit its peak of $800,000 in June 2022, but since the start of 2023 had remained relatively flat with the average house value hovering around the mid to high $700,000s.
- Click here to find properties for sale in Christchurch
