The top and bottom end of the housing market in Auckland's most sought-after suburb saw heat in the auction rooms this week.
Three bidders, all investors, fought for one of the most affordable buys in double grammar zone - a two-bedroom unit at 3/30-32 Ascot Avenue, which sold for $663,000.
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Barfoot & Thompson agent Maree Currie, who marketed the property, said it was originally a one bedroom unit but had been divided into two bedrooms. "It was one of the lowest prices [for Remuera]. There is nothing to compare it with,” she said.
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Currie said that she had 30 groups through the open homes over the short two-and-a-half-week campaign, six of whom had shown keen interest in buying.
“But three of those people were waiting on finance and were conditional, because banks are inundated. Investors are definitely acting. Anyone who can secure finance should be using it," she said.
Currie said that the value of the home lay in its future potential. It sits in a 14-unit block which is zoned for townhouses and apartments, making the entire site attractive to developers.
Once the property reached reserve of $653,000, bids crept up in $500 lots until a final $2000 push clinched it for the buyer.
“If vendors are realistic in their pricing [of auction reserves] they're doing well. If they’re unrealistic, they’re missing out,” Currie said.
Buyers, she said, were starting to learn where to place their attention.
“If you have $1 million, you go to a $900,000 auction and you’re bidding up to $970,000 to get it. You have to decrease your expectation to secure something, and you have to act.”
32 Entrican Avenue, Remuera, fetched almost $700,000 above CV. Photo / Supplied
At the other end of the scale in Remuera, an impeccably modernised property at 32 Entrican Avenue marketed by Barfoot & Thompson agent Cici Wang sold under the hammer for $3.922 million - almost $700,000 above the CV.
The auction had been brought forward with a pre-auction offer of $3.55 million. Eleven registered buyers reduced to four bidders on the day, with the final two bidders “fighting to the last minute”.
“It moves so fast. There’s no time to think about it,” said Wang, explaining that the buyer had missed out on at least three other auctions.
A similarly stylishly renovated at 1 Ngapuhi Road sold for $3.38 million.
Just outside double grammar zone, the property attracted interest from returning expats as well as local families looking for a house in the increasingly popular area, says Barfoot & Thompson agent Verena Ryan who marketed the property with Lisa MacQueen. The eventual buyers were a local family who had been looking on and off for six years.
“Buyers are looking to buy first to secure a home that meets the family needs. They have lots of needs to cater for before they leave their beautiful house – a swimming pool, extra living space. This one had the ‘fall in love’ factor,” says Ryan.
The auction action comes on the back of data released yesterday by Barfoot & Thompson that showed nearly half of its sales in Auckland last month fetched more than $1 million. The company's average sales price for Auckland in October soared to record $1,045,104 and the median price hit a new high of $967,000.
1 Ngapuhi Road, Remuera, sold for $3.38 million. Photo / Supplied
“The era of the average sales price of Auckland residential property exceeding $1 million has begun,” said managing director Peter Thompson.
“Both [prices] are a reflection of people’s confidence in the medium-term future of Auckland property prices. It’s been leading to that for so long.”
The company sold 102 properties for more than $2 million, a category that now represents 7.7 percent of sales.
However, Thompson says that while just 4.5 percent of sales were under $500,000, he was pleased to see there was still a lot of opportunity for first home buyers and rental property investors in the $650,000 to $750,000 market.
October’s total sales volume, at 1319 properties, was the strongest month in four years, while new listings of 2119 established a three year high.
For Barfoot & Thomspon, auctions dominated. Of the 988 properties brought to auction, 60 percent sold under the hammer (reaching 67 percent by 5pm the next day) and 72 percent had sold by the end of the month.
Thompson says that with high demand, there are a lot of pre-auction offers to bring auctions forward. “But we go by what the vendors want. Sometimes we hold off, sometimes it’s an offer so good we don’t want to lose that [buyer].
“We get at least two or three registered bidders on most. Sometimes it’s just the one, but all you need is the one.”
Thompson wouldn't be drawn on whether this market will carry on, but noted that the traditionally busy spring season was made even busier without the usual election drop off.
