A clifftop home with one of the best views in Auckland hit the real estate jackpot after selling for $8 million.
The gorgeous 1960s house at 147A Arney Road, in Remuera, sold well above its $5.6 million council valuation as 18 bidders vied to secure the property at a lively onsite auction called by Barfoot and Thompson on Wednesday.
The property was marketed by Barfoot and Thompson agents Alex Baker and Stephen Rendell and saw a huge amount of buyer enquiry, with more than 130 groups inspecting the home.
Baker and Rendell said the house had been due to go to auction on April 1 but the vendors decided to delay until the lockdown was over.
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The agents said they maintained contact with potential buyers during lockdown period and set another auction date. "We also managed to secure new interest in the first two weeks of level two and took the opportunity to take most of the original interested parties back to the property," they said.
"There were 18 bidders at the auction and the sale price far exceeded the vendor's expectations and hopes."
Bidding started at $4 million at Wednesday's auction and quickly escalated, with the auctioneer, Murray Smith, announcing that property was on the market after bids passed the $6 million mark.
"You can just continue to come up with superlatives about a home in such a sublime position as this," he said of the property, calling for an "unbeatable bid" for an "unbeatable view".
Competing against each other for the home were several high net worth individuals, and as bidding reached $7.9 million, Smith declared it was "decision time" for those in the room. In the end it came down to just two bidders: one offered $7.95 million but was then trumped by a bid of $8 million.
Smith joked with the under-bidder, "Do you want to go $9 million?" before announcing the sale.
It's clear why the home sold for the price it did. It's set on 1489sqm in a plum position looking out over Bloodworth Park across the water to Mount Victoria, North Head and Rangitoto Island.
Amazingly, the property had never before been on the market. In an interview with OneRoof in March, one of the owners of 147a Arney Road, 93-year-old Diana Jackson, revealed the unusual history of the house.
The 1960s-built home that sold at auction this week for an impressive $8 million. Photo / Supplied
In 1961, Jackson and her first husband bought the home behind where 147a Arney Road now sits. It came with a tennis court in front but the couple didn’t have much use for it so they sold it to a man named Ron Yock, who built on it a single-level clifftop home.
In 1994, Jackson, who had remarried after her husband had passed away, bought 147a Arney Road after Yock went into a rest home.
She told OneRoof: “My husband and I used to come down and have a drink with Ron and I’d say, ‘If this house ever goes on the market, Ron, you know who wants to buy it.’
“In 1994 Ron went into a rest home so my husband and I packed our bags and moved just down the driveway.”
Carolyn Vernon, Barfoot and Thompson Remuera manager, said Baker and Rendell went above and beyond in getting the result they did. "It is not all about a quick sale but achieving the best possible outcome and seeing the bigger picture," she said of their strategy to delay the auction instead of getting parties to negotiate via multiple offers.
The sale of 147a Arney Road is just one of many auction highlights since the country moved to alert level two.
One home, a three-bedroom brick and tile unit at 34C Edmund Street in Auckland's St Heliers, sold for $1.71 million - more than $500,000 above its council valuation.
This brick and tile unit in Auckland's St Heliers sold for $1.71 million. Photo / Supplied
Another modest three-bedroom 1940s brick home at 34 Trafalgar St in Auckland's Onehunga sold for $1.6 million, also well above its council valuation, with 10 bidders fighting it out in the auction room.
Across town in Ponsonby, two villas sold for a combined $5 million.
In Gisborne, 24 properties sold under the hammer and in Queenstown a luxury-style home sold for $1.422 million, more than $100,000 above the pre-auction offer.
Owen Vaughan, editor of OneRoof.co.nz, said the sales were an encouraging sign for the housing market.
"We knew from the level of property searches on OneRoof during lockdown that buyers were keen to purchase once the country moved to alert level 2 but the sales seen this week and last prove they were still willing to pay pre-lockdown prices," he said.
