Auckland’s extended level 4 lockdown is not preventing home owners from putting their property on the market, with one agent listing properties worth $60 million in the first four weeks.
Harcourts top agent Aman Gulia, who with colleague Joe Steel has brought 14 new properties to market in the month as well as a 15-home development in Auckland’s inner west, says vendors have seen the sales results during lockdown and are prepared to move on listing.
One of the newest listings will attest to the speed of Auckland’s development frenzy, a pair of Sandringham properties with zoning for apartments listed by Gulia and Benjamin Lu this week.
The seller had bought one of the homes on 250 and 252 Mount Albert Road, a four-bedroom 1950s house on 804sqm in June for $1.78m. Gulia said that the second, a four-bedroom 1920s home on 674sqm, was bought only recently and is yet to settle.
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The pair have a combined ratings valuation $2.58m, but Gulia expects them to sell for around $5m.
The properties at 250 and 252 Mount Albert Road, Sandringham, Auckland are zoned for apartments and terrace housing. Photo / Supplied
“It will be worth more than three months ago. It’s just crazy,” he says.
“We listed and sold two properties entirely during lockdown, and have made $16m sales in September alone.”
Two more of the pair’s listings are for properties asking for more than $6m – a prime development site in Parnell and an exquisitely renovated estate in Onehunga. Both properties had been on the market before and had good photos all ready to use for marketing.
“Vendors are thinking differently,” Gulia says.
Fifteen townhouses on 98-100 Walker Road, Point Chevalier are on the market asking for between $1.5m and $2.4m. Photo / Supplied
“When they tell us ‘we’ll do the work and list as soon as we’re out of lockdown’, we’re looking for a solution. If we’re just selling the land, we look at the property on Google satellite and say ‘don’t worry’, we can enhance those images. There’s no risk putting it on the market now.”
Gulia says that’s not always possible – if there are no photos, or the house is tenanted so third parties cannot get into it – but buyers are there during level 4.
The Harcourts’ team’s biggest listing is for a development of 15 duplexes and townhouses on 98-100 Walker Road, Point Chevalier.
A house with land slated for development on Paritai Drive sold for $3.91m. Photo / Supplied
In October last year, Gulia sold a pair of original 1950s properties to developers for $6m in one of the rapidly heating market’s early neighbour deals.
After a 10-month settlement period, during which the developer had the four- and three-bedroom homes designed and consented, they are on the market, asking for between $1.5m and $2.4m. Called Walker Terraces, some with a garage, others with uncovered carpark, they are scheduled for a December 2022 completion.
“We’ve had 160 enquiries in four days since we listed them,” Gulia says.
“Buyers are a mix of people who’ve sold their family homes for a high price in Point Chev and want to stay in the area, and people moving here. They’re really good quality, with water views and near the park.
“It’s a good sign for other developers who have bought in the last six months, it gives them surety to see such high demand and there will be more coming onto the market.”
A three-bedroom 1950s house in Ventnor Road, Remuera sold for $3.55m. Photo / Supplied
Townhouse sales in the seaside suburb are benchmarked against a pair of brand-new townhouses in Newell Street, on the waterside of Point Chevalier, which sold at auction for $2.476m for the four-bedroom and $2.27m for the three-bedroom last month.
And the neighbourhood’s - and nation’s - eyes are on the four glamorous townhouses on Huia Road, on the city-side of the suburb, just completed for The Block NZ with the live auctions, originally scheduled for September 5, delayed until Auckland’s return to level 2.
Sales include two properties in Savoy Road, Glen Eden, in west Auckland that hit the headlines when four neighbours combined to sell their properties just before lockdown. The owners had seen two houses on nearby Evans Road selling for almost $4m to a developer earlier in the month and hoped to reap a combined $6m for theirs, which are zoned for terrace houses and apartments.
The two closed deals, a five-bedroom home on 1138sqm for $2.036m and another 1950s house on 850sqm for $1.596m, are more than double their ratings valuations. The other two owners are in negotiations with more than one developer, Gulia told OneRoof.
Two out of four neighbours in Savoy Road, Glen Eden, west Auckland have sold for $3.632m. Photo / Supplied
Buyers are spending big sums.
Gulia and Steel’s other completed deals include more than $5m for over 2000sqm of land in a single-house zone in Mount Eden’s grammar zone, $3.91m for a four-bedroom house on over 900sqm of land zoned for density in blue-chip Paritai Drive, Orakei, and $3.55m for a three-bedroom 1950s house in Ventnor Road, Remuera.
The 990sqm Remuera site, zoned for suburban density but outside of grammar zone, changed hands only last October for an undisclosed price, but Gulia says it was sold by team member Sid Sharma to a developer in an off-market deal. It had a ratings valuation of $4.15m.
South Auckland developers also bought a pair of neighbouring properties in Leaver Place, Manurewa for $2.61m, more than $1.15m over their combined council ratings valuation. The combined sites of just over 2400sqm are zoned for suburban density.
