- A St Heliers home sold for $2.55m after vendors set the auction reserve at $2.3m.
- Agent Jane Wang said interest surged after the reserve was declared, attracting multiple bidders.
- The property, with a $4m RV, had been on the market for almost a year.
After languishing on the market for almost a year, a large family home in the Auckland suburb of St Heliers finally found a buyer after the vendors took a gamble with the auction reserve.
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Barfoot & Thompson agent Jane Wang, who took on the listing at the start of the year, said interest in the property exploded after the vendors declared they were willing to sell for half the RV at $2.3m.
That’s when things turned around big time, said Wang, of her successful $2.55m sale for retirees from the seaside Auckland suburb, next door to Mission Bay.
The listing agent says the vendors are happy with the result: "They bought in the 1980s for very little." Photo / Supplied
“After seven days we had more people than the first three weeks,” Wang told OneRoof.
The four-bedroom house on St Heliers Bay Road was a beautiful home but Wang said the $4m-plus RV had put off buyers.
She said the valuation reflected the 1345sqm land-holding and the fact it was zoned for development. However, Wang said the potential to subdivide the property was complicated due to stormwater and drainage issues.
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The feedback from buyers was much lower than the vendors had expected, so the agency decided to focus the marketing on the house instead.
“Also, the owners were retired. They bought in the 1980s for very little so they were happy with anything over $2m,” Wang said.
She said the declared reserve was a first for her in her more than 20 years in real estate.
“We told everybody that’s our reserve. The result was amazing. Suddenly we got, every day, at least five groups through, from different agencies, from our own database.”
The property offered more than 1300sqm of land, but development wasn’t easy. Photo / Supplied
Around five bidders turned up to the auction at the end of February, and while the sale price was well under the RV, it exceeded the reserve. “The vendors were very happy because we got $2.55m,” the agent said.
Wang said the sale showed the power of finding the right sales strategy, especially at a time when many buyers perceived Auckland’s RVs to be too high.
She thought the soon-to-be-released new RVs for the city would bring some of these high valuations down. “I think we’ll have fewer issues.”
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