Despite a couple of auction prices that have exceeded $6 million in the past two weeks, agents are cautioning that the spring uptick in top-end buying might be stymied by a lack of new properties coming onto the market.
A re-built four-bedroom house on Devore Street, Saint Heliers, sold on September 25 for $6.05m – a whopping $1.3m over its on-the-market price and $1.2m over CV. In a heated half-hour battle, three bidders fought through 95 bids before the hammer came down.
Aaron Foss, the Barfoot & Thompson agent who marketed the property, said he had people who missed out on the house, one with up to $10m to spend, still looking in the tightly-held suburb but had few listings to show them.
He said the property, which drew in the downsizers because it had a lift and expansive harbour views, was close to the village and on a desirable street. Foss said 35 groups of buyers with budgets of $5m looked at the property as there were few like it around.
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Also in Auckland’s eastern bays, Ray White agent Lisa MacQueen sold a renovated four-bedroom house on Codrington Crescent, Mission Bay, by private treaty just after the auction, on Friday for $6.3m.
MacQueen said that the property attracted over 70 groups of buyers, drawn to the impeccable renovation, only recently finished, and she noted a lot of them were newly looking because the property was so special.
Five bidders competed for the home, which had a CV of $4.9m.
“The price range was in excess of $6m, but it was under $7m, and if you look at sales across Auckland there have only been two to four sales above $5m in the past six weeks, virtually a handful,” she said.
Buyers also fought for a recently renovated four-bedroom house on Codrington Street, in Mission Bay, which eventually sold for $6.3m. Photos / Supplied
“The buyers are there but they’re not biting the current stock. It has to be a standout or have something about it.
“For houses with the features the market is looking for, buyers come out of the woodwork. But they’re just waiting for those plums,” MacQueen said.
Another four-bedroom property on Walton Street, Remuera, sold for $5.723m – over $523,000 above its CV – after five bidders competed for the custom-built, double grammar zone house that featured an Italian kitchen, central air and three living areas.
Also in double grammar zone, a five-bedroom, architecturally-designed house on Landscape Road, Mount Eden, fetched $5.01m, $1.3m above its CV.
The Barfoot & Thompson agent who marketed the property, Diana West, said that with nearly 70 groups through the property at open homes and 12 bidders registered for the auction, the price flew past the $4m mark most buyers had indicated they thought it would go for.
“That’s what happens when more than one person wants it. It had spectacular views and great spaces. A lot of the buyers were not active buyers but had seen it in OneRoof Herald Homes,” West told OneRoof.
“There literally hasn’t been anything like that on the market in grammar zone. Since Covid there has been a severe lack of family homes for people who are moving up the scale.
“Everyone was ecstatic because we haven’t had an auction at that level for some time,” West said, adding that the 11 underbidders were still looking for similar places and there weren’t enough to show them.
A five-bedroom house in Landscape Road, Mount Eden, had 12 registered bidders and sold for $5.01m. Photos / Supplied
A four-bedroom house on Walton Street, Remuera, sold for $5.723m after five bidders competed. Photos / Supplied
However, the listings still have to have special appeal to draw out buyers.
“Everyone does have a real sense of the tremendous correction we have had, which shaved a lot of value off people’s property. So they are mindful of that and won’t pay over the odds,” she said.
Ray White chief auctioneer Sam Steele described the big numbers that some properties were achieving unusual.
“These properties are typically exceptional properties that regardless of market are going to have good interest. They’re so well positioned that in this market they are probably a little bit more protected, so whatever the market they’re going to get buyers,” he said.
But, he said, while growth was across all price points, stock at the higher price point was still late coming to the spring market compared with previous years.
Barfoot & Thompson auctioneer Murray Smith said that buyers he talked to were aware that prices had bottomed out and they needed to crack on. He added that first-home buyers were picking up properties previously marketed to investors and were back bidding at auctions.
They were crucial to the market, as they kicked off the chain of sales that allowed other homeowners to move up the ladder, he said.
“Since the beginning of August, my success rate at auctions has kicked ahead. We’ve got multiple bidders. If someone is thinking of putting the house on the market now, they probably need to get on with it.”
MacQueen said some vendors were not confident about being on the open market, preferring to “dip their toes in the water” with an off-market listing.
“But when you go to market, you want to cast a net into the ocean, you don’t want to drop a line into the pond. People need good old competition.
“There are good buyers out there looking, they’re just waiting for the right property to come up,” she said.
However, while there might be more bidders at selected auctions, she’s not calling it anything like the crazy FOMO boom post-Covid.
“No, we do not have that mood of 2021/22 at all, and my view is that it will take a long time to get there. There’s some fresh air coming through, so it’s encouraging.”
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