The owners of a three-bedroom home on Waiheke Island sold it for $2.344 million at the end of October, just eight months after they bought it for $2.11m.
Listing agent Francine Sweet, from New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty, told OneRoof the owners’ decision to take the home to auction paid off.
She had pitched the property to “savvy visionaries”, declaring in the listing that for every dollar spent “you might take two out”.
“If you’re taking your property to auction, you need a different marketing approach, a different script,” Sweet said, when asked about the more than $200,000 jump in value between the two sales.
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She also pointed out that the pool of buyers in October was different from the pool in February. She said that back then the Hauraki Road property had been on the market for some two months and had been seeking $2.299m before selling for nearly $200,000 less.
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“There’s a creeping confidence in the market right now, and it was a beautiful success for the vendors, who had a change of circumstances,” she said.
The auction date had been brought forward after the vendors accepted a pre-auction offer after just three weeks. Three bidders competed for the property at the auction itself, with the property snapped up by one of the bidders who hadn’t made the pre-auction offer.
Sweet said that an auction campaign still needed agents who could get buyers who were cashed up and ready to bid, but she had noticed an influx of buyers who were new to the market starting to look for a holiday home.
The owners brought their Hauraki Road house to auction and had three bidders, after an early pre-auction offer. Photo / Supplied
The new owners of a three-bedroom house at 6 Queens Drive, Oneroa, listed the property just half an hour after their sale had settled because of a change in circumstance. Photo / Supplied
Sweet will be testing the market change further when she takes a modern three-bedroom property at 6 Queens Drive, between Little Oneroa Beach and the Northern Bays, to auction next month. She had previously sold the house in June this year.
Sweet’s marketing is aimed at buyers who may have missed their chance last time, as she said a change of the new owners’ circumstances meant they had to put it back on the market just half an hour after the sale settled. The stylish house has a plunge pool and hot tub, as well as an outdoor fireplace and plenty of parking.
“I’m putting myself under pressure, as now I have to outperform my own performance. It’s an over $3m price point, it sold in June for $3.565m with five bidders,” she said.
“It was a good price and now I’ve got to beat it,” she said, adding that some 60 to 70 buyers viewed the property last time.
Ray White agent Matthew Smith is also testing this summer’s auction market when he brings a four-bedroom waterfront home at 6 Arran Bay Road, Arran Bay, back to the market, this time with an auction on November 23 and a declared reserve of $2.2m.
The house in the gated Arran Bay community of just 15 houses has its own jetty, with a boat house and mooring. It was listed with both Smith and another agent in January with an asking price of $2.995m but didn’t sell.
A four-bedroom house in the gated Arran Bay community at 6 Arran Bay Road is going to auction November 23 with a $2.2m reserve. It was earlier listed at $2.995m. Photo / Supplied
The house, which has been in the same family for 24 years, has a jetty, sandy beach, boathouse and mooring for two boats. Photo / Supplied
It didn’t get any bites, so Smith said the vendor was now keen to off-load the family bach of over 24 years to move on.
“When we first appraised it, in an ordinary market, it would have been worth $4m, but we’re in a tight market and he wants to sell it relatively quickly,” Smith said.
“In an extraordinary market of 2020, 2021, and money was ridiculously cheap so it might have gone for even more than that then – it could have got four or five million.”
Smith said that his vendor, who has now bought another place on Pauanui, was no longer using the Waiheke property. He was reluctant to drop the price to $2.5m, so Smith convinced him to set a low auction reserve instead.
“The lower you make your reserve, the more attractive it is going to be and it’s one of the primo spots. It’s just maintained that old-school Waiheke feel like 100 years ago, that community feel. It’s secluded, but only 15 minutes drive to Onetangi, 30 minutes from the ferry.”
The owners, who lived on the eastern beaches, would bring their own boat over, hardly ever using public ferries, the agent said.
Smith admitted that while there was an uptick in enquiry for properties on the island, there was also a huge influx of new listings and visitor numbers haven’t been helped by unsettled weather.
He said at a lower price point, a little two-bedroom place with no views on Great Barrier Road, Sandy Bay, fetched $1.45m at auction last weekend with three bidders competing.
“All three of them were holiday-home buyers,” he said.
- Click here to find more properties for sale on Waiheke Island
