A run-down Auckland villa that had sat empty for 10 years has sold under the hammer for $2.66 million after 11 bidders slugged it out on-site.
Ray White listing agent Logan Campbell told OneRoof the auction for the deceased estate on Ponsonby’s Ardmore Road brought out the crowds on Sunday, with as many as 50 people watching the sale, some from the roadside.
Campbell said he had been surprised by the attention the house got on the day, highlighting that the number of people through the open homes had not been large. “We had 11 bidders. That’s crazy. In seven years I’ve never had 11 bidders before,” he said.
“The bidding started at a million bucks. It went up pretty quickly to two million and then it was four parties bidding on it after $2m, all the way up to $2.66m. We were blown away because the buyer feedback had been quite a bit lower than that.”
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The four-bedroom villa is located on one of Ponsonby’s most popular streets and had a 2021 CV of $3.65m. Renovated or well-maintained villas on the street have recently sold for upwards of that sum, with one getting close to $4m in May.
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Campbell said the registered bidders were a mix of owner-occupiers looking to transform the home for themselves, and investors who planned to buy, renovate and re-sell.
He wasn’t sure what the buyer’s plans were but he noted that there were developers at the auction who were on the hunt for smaller, less risky projects. “They would normally be doing developments, building townhouses and such, but they are looking at doing renovation projects because they’re less risky,” he said.
Campbell said the Ardmore Road villa was a bit of a landmark in the neighbourhood and had been owned by the same family for at least 70 years.
The property was empty for 10 years and sold as a deceased estate. Photo / Supplied
The agent told media the rooms had been crammed with junk and needed clearing before the house hit the market. Photo / Supplied
He previously told OneRoof that he had been told by a neighbour that the four-bedroom villa was built in 1853, even though records pinpoint its construction some 50 years later. “It’s definitely the oldest house I have sold,” Campbell told OneRoof. “The walls are kauri plank.”
The owner had been a collector in his lifetime and there were several old cars around the property when Campbell first inspected it. “We had to get four cars taken off the property. They had to be cut up because they couldn’t roll. They were rusted into the ground.”
He told Stuff media that the neighbours were all happy to see it cleaned up. “They’ve lived with this all this time,” he said.
The villa was popular with locals, Campbell told OneRoof, because it was on the sunny side of the road. “All the neighbours were coming through [the open homes] and saying, ‘You’ll sell this one. This is the good side of the street’. So it was quite good.”
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