The $5.11 million sale of four-bedroom bungalow in the central Auckland suburb of Epsom last week shows how much house prices have shifted in the city in the last decade.
According to OneRoof sales records, the double grammar zone home last sold in 2009 for just under $1.8m, and the CV, taken in 2017, was $2.775m.
The premium paid for the property on Empire Road is also a reflection of the increasing desire for large family homes in areas where infill development is limited.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Denise Michl, who marketed the property with colleague Ann Mushet, said buyers were attracted by the fact that properties in the street were zoned single house.
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She told OneRoof that even though the house was listed just before Christmas she had 130 inspections during the marketing campaign and 12 bidders at last week’s auction.
She said that level of interest was almost unheard of for holiday periods in Auckland, especially in the $5m bracket.
While homes on sub-dividable sites have been attracting big sums and attention, demand for properties with single house zoning was increasing among families at the upper end of the market.
“You don’t want to spend all that money on a house and have six terrace houses going up next door to you, and the heritage overlay gives you a peace of mind,” Michl said.
Michl said that homes on Empire Road were tightly held, with few coming to market. “Maybe once a year, if you’re lucky, with people staying there for over 20 years,” she said.
Up for auction in February: 19 Platina Street, in Remuera, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Michl said that the bidders at the auction – mostly Auckland families - had been able to look past the fact that the house lacked a modern kitchen and updated living space.
She said the under-bidders were in tears after losing out. “It was a battle. It was hard to look at them.”
Ray White Remuera agent Steve Koerber, who also sells in the city’s prized double grammar zone, said that buyers who specifically request properties in a single house zone would typically look to clear the site and build their own luxury home or look to modernise the existing home.
“There’s a bunch of people out there who are worried once they purchase what's likely to happen around them and a lot of them are asking to be in a single house zone,” he said.
Koerber is selling a three-bedroom property on a 999sqm site on Platina Road, in Remuera, which is zoned mixed housing suburban.
He said despite the zooming, buyers could still feel protected. “There’s a new home being built next door, which has taken years to finish up. So, if it was just a normal old home next door, it would be a concern, but with this one it provides security,” he said, adding that the properties on the other side were on a cross lease and difficult to develop.
Colliers director of site sales Josh Coburn, who has brokered some of Auckland's biggest residential land sales, said the infill market had changed.
"There continues to be strong interest for well-located, easily accessible and straightforward development sites, both larger greenfield as well as infill sites. Competition for these often translates into premium prices, but the purchasers are typically well-experienced, armed with appropriate market intel and are highly capable of delivering desirable homes,” Coburn said.
"Conversely, enquiry and activity for development sites that have less desirable selling features and a higher degree of complexity have unquestionably changed. The complexities add to costs, uncertainty and thin margins, which will not be as easily mitigated and/or absorbed as they have been over the past 18 months now that we are in an increasing interest rate environment. These sites will be the ones that remain on-market for longer periods in 2022 compared with 2021."
