A development site in the Auckland city-fringe suburb of Morningside sold last week in less than 24 hours as developers return to the market this spring.
The $1,812,500 price for the 703sqm of bare land on Mountain View Road with suburban zoning and resource consent for six houses represented a loss for the vendor, said Harcourts agent Aman Gulia, who marketed the property with Joe Steel. The property had a CV of $2.125 million.
“The vendor bought [in June] last year for $1.85m and did the resource consent. Another developer took over the project and will be building it,” he told OneRoof.
“We signed the listing to take it to market but received an unconditional offer on the same day from the database and it was sold.” The deal settles next month.
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It was one of the $16m worth of deals inked in the last two weeks by the pair. Gulia said properties that have sat all winter are moving, as astute buyers pick the market which may be close to bottoming out.
Agents have offers of over $7m for a 6622sqm property at St George Street, Papatoetoe, which has a CV of $5.4m. Photo / Supplied
“I get very excited every time I see that wave of buyers come through,” he said.
“We are definitely seeing a lot of activity, the sites that were sitting are now getting multiple offers.
“Buyers [are] taking advantage of the low prices, not wanting to miss out and accepting that we are close to hitting the bottom of the market.”
He said activity has picked up in September.
“[When] we spoke to developers at the start of the year they said they were out of the market.
“Admittedly these people are all looking for bargains. But the question is ‘what is a bargain?’ now. Because if people feel the market is about to move back up, then today's market prices will be a bargain a few years from now,” he said, adding that most buyers are negotiating long settlements of nine to 12 months, much the same as they were in 2020-2021.
He said they are anticipating today’s prices will be lower than in the next market upturn.
“We have never met a person who bought 30 years ago and still holds a grudge about ‘overpaying’ by a small percentage back then,” he said.
After failing to sell last year, a 17,000sqm plot from a larger church-owned site on Wyllie Road, Papatoetoe, had multiple offers over $20m. Photo / Supplied
Buyers are experienced developers, Gulia said, some with 200 or 300 of residences under their belt and ready to buy as their earlier projects finish up and are sold down.
Gulia and Steel said contracts this month have ranged from neighbouring suburban sites in West Auckland’s Sunnyvale for “well over $3.25m”, an 1800sqm site under contract for “well over $2.5m” in Massey, and a pair of do-up properties on 1359sqm in Unsworth Heights on Auckland’s North Shore for over $2m.
“We have offers over $10m on a site in Henderson,” he said, adding the increase in enquiry levels and offers has been sudden.
In South Auckland, the pair are also fielding offers of over $7m for a 6622sqm property at St George Street, Papatoetoe, with a six-bedroom arts and crafts house on it. The former deceased estate, zoned for suburban density, has a CV of $5.4m.
“We have seen strong interest in this site, with offers before launching it in the market. We are currently speaking to a few parties to get better terms for the vendor,” Gulia said.
And in a more complicated deal, Gulia and Harcourts business owner David Findlay are marketing a 17,000 sqm site carved off a larger church-owned property at Wyllie Road, Papatoetoe which he said turned down multiple offers, off market, of over $20m last year.
“The terms didn't suit the church,” Gulia explained.
“The church would like the developer to complete and pay for the subdivision and then settle on the [sale of the land].
“In the last two weeks, we have had multiple offers over $15m. We are now working with multiple parties with offers of well over $20m.”
Agents expect an 8.9-hectare plot zoned for future urban at 761 Great South Road, Drury would fetch over $20m. Photo / Supplied
Findlay and Gulia expect that another super-deal in play, an 8.9-hectare plot zoned future urban at 761 Great South Road, Drury would fetch over $20m, in line with the $275m paid by Fisher and Paykel Healthcare this month for a nearby 105ha Karaka property slated for the manufacturer’s second campus.
“We have few neighbours around the site who are looking to be part of the sale [to bring it to 40 hectares off market] with a price expectation of over $80m,” Gulia told OneRoof.
In the listing for the smart six-bedroom house and pool, Findlay and Gulia say the time period for the expected rezone is 2028-32, with a current plan suggesting business light industrial around 2028 (subject to council and services, as per the Council Drury-Opaheke District Plan).
“There are successful developments throughout the area, and it is only a matter of time before this is snatched up,” they say.
Nick Mattison, a director and planner of planning and engineering company Civix, said that buyers moving now on bigger plots of land know what they’re doing.
“They understand there are two years of paperwork to get into a development, particularly if they’re staging it,” he said.
“A lot of people don’t understand what they can do as of right under the new [medium density residential] rules, but these [developers] are more educated, they’re looking at opportunities now that there’s been a clear out.”
