A beloved family bach in Cooks Beach, in the Coromandel, has changed hands for the first time in 56 years after selling for $1.4 million at auction as buyers try to secure their piece of paradise.
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom fibrolite house on Endeavour Place, with a rateable value of $710,000, attracted four buyers with three of them battling it out until the hammer came down at almost double the RV.
Bidding started at $850,000, it was announced on the market at $1.2m and eventually sold for $1.4m.
Harcourts Cooks Beach salesperson Paulette Tainsh said while the owners were sad to see the property go after it had been enjoyed by four generations of their family, they were happy with the auction result.
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“It was really just the fact that there were three bidders there. That was fantastic.”
Properties on streets such as Endeavour Pl, Hicks Pl, Hardy Pl, Riverview and Oyster drive, which are in the older parts of Cooks Beach near the beach, rarely came up, she said, and when they did, they were often in high demand especially those priced around the $1.5m mark.
“That particular property is in a really good street. Endeavour Place is fantastic as far as you don’t have to cross the road to go to the beach, it’s a quiet little cul-de-sac, it’s an easy walk to the shops. The main thing is its proximity to the beach really and the fact that it was a north-facing site too,” Tainsh said.
“They are just great proximity to the beach and this is a cool wee bach ... there’s very little that comes up in those old parts of the beach that are around that, that come to the market.”
2 Scott Drive in Cooks Beach, Coromandel, is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom board and batten home with an asking price of $1.35m. Photo / Supplied
A two-bedroom, two-bathroom board and batten home at 2 Scott Drive has an asking price of $1.35m. While a four-bedroom, two-bathroom property at 1 Hardy Place in Cooks Beach, just across the road from the beach, is being sold by negotiation and would also suit two families.
Tainsh is also marketing a beachfront property at 141 Captain Cook Road, Cooks Beach, and said these only come up about once a year – twice if you were lucky.
The absolute beachfront property is in an incredible position, she said. “Watching the water and listening to the waves and the sun – the house is great.” There are also steps to the side of the house down to the beach.
The current owners, who after 20 years are relocating to Whangaparaoa, spend a lot of their time out on the deck looking at the view, she said.
“It’s just so stunning.” The property is being auctioned on November 3.
141 Captain Cook Road, Cooks Beach, is an absolute beachfront property with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, and will be sold at auction on November 3. Photo / Supplied
Harcourts Thames auctioneer Steve Bridson said auctions were definitely starting to heat up in both Thames and the Coromandel and people were continuing to relocate from Auckland or one of the other main cities.
“Now when a new property comes on the market at the moment, we are finding that there’s more than one person interested so now you’ve got competition.”
Both the auctions he was involved in this weekend, the Endeavour Place bach and a property with a grazing block on Maramarahi Road in Thames, sold for more than the vendor had expected.
The Maramarahi Road property sold for $933,000 – $112,000 more than it sold for 12 months ago.
Bridson said the people looking at beach properties were often not first-home buyers, but people with some cash looking for retirement or holiday homes.
“I’m finding buyers that have sort of a million or two million or whatever to spend – they [might] sort of like a house in Waihi Beach or we might go to Hahei, they are not fixated to one spot.”
1 Hardy Place in Cooks Beach has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and is priced by negotiation. Photo / Supplied
There is also a lot of demand for coastal lifestyle properties and untouched properties that have often been in the same family for a long time and are smaller home on larger sections, he said.
Last month, a lifestyle six-bedroom property on an elevated section on Purangi Road in Cooks Beach with impressive sea views was snapped up at an auction for $4.5m – $1.9m more than the owner’s expectation.
The property, which was purchased by a Bay of Plenty family as their holiday home, attracted three bidders.
Bayleys Whitianga agent Belinda Sammons, told OneRoof at the time of the sale, that the property’s views were without a doubt what made it so special because from the house all you could see was the ocean.
“It was just a really nice position where it was. It’s still close to the beach, but away from the beach so it was private and quiet. That view was spectacular.”
