A South Island holiday home originally bought as a bare section for $57,000 has sold for a whopping $1.19m as popularity for the lakeside town of Moana continues to surge.
Harcourts salesperson Nicky Brownlee said the area is going “nuts” with house prices in Moana beside Lake Brunner, in Grey District, jumping up significantly in the last 18 months as more and more people discover how good it was for swimming, trout fishing and watersports.
The owners bought the section on Ranui Place, in Moana, Grey District, for $57,000 in 2000 and built a four-bedroom, two-bathroom holiday home on it for their family.
However, decades on the house was now surplus to requirements because they were not using it as much now their family had grown up so they had decided to sell it and go travelling in their motorhome instead, she said.
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The auction for the holiday home opened at $800,000 and crept up to $1.04m when it paused for negotiation. It resumed at $1.19m when the property was announced on the market and sold for the same price.
Brownlee said the three people bidding at the auction held at Harcourts Grenadier were from the wider Canterbury area and had all been wanting to secure a holiday home in the area.
The bach was just a five-minute walk from the lake and the layout with two-bedrooms upstairs and two-bedrooms downstairs had appealed to extended families, she said. There was also a large garage to store the water toys.
The eventual owners were from Waimakariri and had been looking for a holiday home for their family.
However, Brownlee, who owns a holiday home in the Moana area and admitted she might be a bit biased when she said it was the best place in the world, said the town had become extremely popular with holidaygoers from Nelson, Christchurch and surrounding areas.
The house appealed to larger families because it had two-bedrooms upstairs and two-bedrooms downstairs. Photo / Supplied
The house had an internal garage for storing all the water toys. Photo / Supplied
While Akaroa was closer to Christchurch and a popular seaside destination, Moana was pulling in lake lovers, she said.
“If you look at Wanaka – it's such a long drive (over five hours from Christchurch) and you go to Kaiteri and that’s the other end. Whereas you jump in the car Friday night after work and you are in Moana in two-and-a-a-half hours.”
Over the years it had gone from a small village with a few baches dotted around and was now a thriving holiday hotspot during summer.
“It’s getting more and more discovered and I think that’s why prices have gone a bit crazy there because it’s not only trout fishing, swimming, boating, lots of watersports – there's a new cycle track that’s gone in as well that’s just been completed that’s pretty cool as well that goes right from Moana through to Mitchells.”
Lake Brunner was also well known for being a deep and warm lake.
The record sale price for the area was broken earlier this year when a property on a 500sqm section on Ahau Street, in Moana, Grey District sold for $1.2m. There were about 600 properties in the area. Valocity senior research analyst Wayne Shum said the average house value in August was $724,000, which had grown from $635,000 year-on-year. "The rest of the New Zealand market was roughly unmoved, yet this area has grown 14%."
One of the more affordable homes in the area was a property on 201 Lake Brunner Road situated between Moana and another popular holiday spot Iveagh Bay. The three-bedroom, one-bathroom home on a 4623sqm section was priced at the entry-level price of $695,000.
While a near-new modern three-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 7 Koe Street, in Moana, was being sold due to ill health. The property, which was priced by application, sat next to a railway line and had impressive uninterrupted lake views.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Moana
