A completely renovated 1920s home on Seaview Road in Auckland’s Remuera has broken the record for the most expensive property to sell at auction this year.
The $7.7 million sale price knocks out the previous record-holder, an architecturally-designed four-bedroom house on Palm Beach, Waiheke Island, which sold for $6.031m in February.
Bidding for the Seaview Road home, at Ray White Remuera’s auction room today, opened at $6.5m before steadily rising in $100,000 increments. It paused at $7.65m and when the auction resumed was announced on the market.
But a final bid of $50,000 proved to be decisive and after a total of 14 bids, the hammer came down and the property was sold.
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The new owners were moving from North Shore to Remuera to be closer to their children's schools.
The large 475sqm bungalow on a 1034sqm section was completely transformed three years ago and was marketed as “having everything you would expect to see in a brand-new home”.
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It had a 2021 CV of $6.5m and according to OneRoof records last sold in 2014 for $3.1m. The listing agents, Steve and Nina Koerber, posted on Linkedin this morning that they had a feeling the property would break records.
Steve Koerber told OneRoof that very few properties in the premium price range were sold by the auction sales method.
“If you go and search for homes over $6m in Remuera, every single one of them is for sale by negotiation. So my question is that you have to question the motivation of those owners as compared to my owners today.”
Taking the Seaview Rd property to auction ended up being a good strategy for the owners as it showed their motivation and ended up attracting seven registered bidders.
"It was a beautiful home in a fantastic street."
Koerber said today's sale was also only one of four properties in Remuera to sell over $6m so far this year and was also the highest sale price to ever fall under Ray White Remuera's hammer. The previous record dates back to 2021 when an immaculately renovated five-bedroom home on Tirohanga Avenue, in Remuera, sold for $7.5 million.
However, the $7.7m sale price falls short of the $20m paid for a Whitford mansion, which is the highest residential sale price so far this year.
Wealthy American entrepreneur Richard Griot, who boasts one of the world's finest car collections, sold the 7.4ha lifestyle block in Whitford in January. He had used the property as a holiday home, but since Covid had been unable to use it as much and so decided to sell.
The overall auction record is held by a penthouse apartment on Remuera Road, which sold under the hammer for just over $12m last year.
The sale price for Seaview Road was well above its 2021 CV of $6.5m and more than double what it sold for in 2014. Photo / Supplied
The property on Seaview Road was given a makeover three years ago, fusing a 1920s home with contemporary open-plan living. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof records show the highest sale price for Remuera so far this year is $10m, for a large house on Remuera Road, although details about the private transaction are scarce.
Another property on Remuera Road, the former Plumley House property sold for more than $6m in January, below its CV of $7.4m, although the deal has yet to settle.
The home was on a 1370sqm corner section and was marketed as being either a do-up or having development potential.
Ray White Remuera agents Nina and Steve Koerber had a feeling the property would break auction records. Photo / Fiona Goodall
A rundown three-bedroom villa on Buller Road, in Reefton, Buller, sold at auction today for a fraction of what Seaview Road fetched. Photo / Supplied
Just an hour after the Remuera property was called, an uninhabitable 1910s villa in Reefton, Buller, attracted a flurry of bids before selling for $77,000 at a mortgagee auction at Ray White Westport’s auction room.
The property is one of the cheapest properties to sell at auction so far this year.
Bidding started at $10,000, the Buller Road property was announced on the market at $60,000 and it finally sold for $77,000 after 19 bids. It had an RV of $265,000.
The auctioneer told those in the room that the house was in poor condition and that the real estate agents had not even been inside it.
The property had no flooring, was missing walls and, according to the listing, could be suitable to demolish and rebuild on the 607sqm site.
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