A property on the edge of Red Beach on Auckland’s Whangaparoa Peninsula sold at auction last week for $5.9 million - more than double its 2021 CV of $2.6m.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Alan Vessey, who marketed the deceased estate on behalf of the Public Trust, said that some 50 developers had shown interest in the 7894sqm site on Matija Place and 17 buyers had registered to bid at the auction.
“It was just the perfect storm. We shot past the reserve of $3.2m with eight bidders still going,” Vessey said, adding that the result had "blown away" the vendors and the valuer who had helped set the reserve.
“There are only a few sites this big around Red Beach, the owner has had it for over 40 years and died last year aged 93. The money will go to the Charitable Trust, which supports various charities around Auckland.”
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Vessey said the owner and his sister, who died six years ago, lived in a modest four-bedroom 1970s house built when a farm was carved into semi-rural two-acre lots near the Orewa River.
Most of those lots have since been subdivided into suburban 600sqm properties, and developers were interested in doing the same with this lot, which is zoned for single houses.
Vessey said the bidders at the auction were a mix of developers and land-bankers. He could not disclose the buyer or their plans for the property, but said that there was a strong market for new homes in the area, pointing to two three-bedroom homes on 600sqm sites on nearby Odlin Lane asking $1.695m and $1.585m respectively.
The 7894sqm property is surrounded by a subdivision of new houses that sell for more than $1.5m. Photo / Supplied
The Matija Place property is minutes from the Orewa River estuary and the Hibiscus Coast village. Photo / Supplied
“Some people will go to the brand new suburbs like Milldale, but other people like being in an established suburb up here,” he said.
Barfoot & Thompson auctioneer Murray Smith, who called the auction, said the result showed that experienced buyers were still on the lookout.
"A lot of last year’s sales were not to seasoned developers, but the ones at the moment are experienced - they’ve got it under control,” he said.
“When it’s a very clear commercial decision, you could see that they’d worked the numbers. They’d worked out they could get more for their end product than in some of those newer suburbs.”
The sale comes after other record-breaking prices in the area, for both residential homes and large development plots.
This waterfront property on Hibiscus Coast Highway, Orewa, sold for a record $7.8m. Photo / Supplied
Ray White agent Ross Hawkins set the waterfront record in neighbouring Orewa when he sold a 1922 sqm property in two titles on Hibiscus Coast Road in the village for $7.8m.
OneRoof records show the sale, inked in November, has just settled.
The fully renovated five-bedroom main house had unobstructed beach and Hauraki Gulf views, while the second smaller section included a two-bedroom original house.
“Homes like these are tightly held and seldom come to market,” Hawkins said, adding that high-end and unique properties are selling this year at the same prices as before the current slowdown.
Boom town: Houses under construction in neighbouring Orewa. Photo / Fiona Goodall
“Properties that are a limited commodity, ones that you can’t just go down the road and buy another one, they are definitely holding their value,” he said.
“These buyers are not so reliant on the banks and if they really want the property, they are happy to just pay the price to secure it.”
Developers are also snapping up farms on these northern edges of the city that have the potential to become entire new suburbs.
The 192ha Longburn Farm in Wainui changed hands in last month. It is over the road from the new suburb of Milldale, which will eventually have around 4500 homes, a town centre, reserves, schools and a retirement village.
Ryan Johnson, national director of Bayleys Commercial, announced the Longburn sale as "what will become Auckland's next metropolitan neighbourhood", and said it would add thousands of homes to the Silverdale/Milldale/Millwater area.
Longburn Farm in Wainui, north of Auckland near Millwater and Silverdale, is to be turned into a new residential development. Photo / Supplied
Johnson earlier told OneRoof that bids of between $30m and $90m were made for the farm, with interest from both local and international buyers.
He could not reveal the final price or who the buyer was.
"The sale is significant in that it endorses the continued growth of Auckland and that Milldale area and hopefully the infrastructure starts to come into play as well,” he said.
“Obviously, the residential market in Auckland has gone so well and they could also see that this was the next step of Auckland North's development.
"The council had aims this might be developed over 20 years but it's probably going to be more like 10 years."
