A dilapidated villa in Auckland’s prized grammar school zone sold at auction this week for $1.44 million – but that was still $910,000 less than its 2021 CV.
Bayleys agents Peter Tanner and Nathan Karpik, who marketed the tired three-bedroom home on Claremont Street, in Grafton, focused on the potential of the single house-zoned 506sqm section.
“The home, in its original condition, provides a blank canvas for your renovation ambitions,” the agents said in the advertising, pointing out the property is in zone for Auckland Grammar School, and handy to the hospital, Auckland Domain, the city and Newmarket.
The house, which has two unconsented sleepouts, was sold on an “as is, where is” basis and the agents told buyers to disregard the CV of $2.35m ($2.225m of that was in the land value). OneRoof records show the property last changed hands almost 30 years ago for $142,000.
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Bidding for the property started at $800,000 and paused twice for negotiation at $1.05m and $1.37m before the house was declared on the market at $1.425m and sold after two more bids.
Tanner told OneRoof that with four bidders at the auction, the successful buyer was a family who bought to renovate and live in it themselves. He said about 30 groups had looked at the property.
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Across town in Barfoot and Thompson’s auction rooms, a developer picked up another tired house on the Kingsland corner of Sandringham Road for $2.6m, $600,000 below CV, after being the only bidder for the property.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Cici Wang, who marketed the six-bedroom rental property with Sandra He, said that there were a lot of developers hoping to make conditional offers on the site after the auction. Bidding started at $2m, before negotiations pulled the price to $2.5m. It was declared on the market at $2.6m and the hammer came down – to the surprise of both the auctioneer and the agent, Wang said.
The cottage on Claremont Street is zoned single house, close to the hospital, city and Newmarket, and was bought by a family planning to renovate and then move in. Photo / Supplied
“We’d known it would go for land value from the beginning and had aimed for mid-$2m. The buyer had the paperwork, but as far as we know hadn’t visited the site – but no-one cares about the internal condition,” she said, of the six-bedroom rental home.
The 1118sqm site, zoned for urban density, was marketed with resource consents for seven terrace houses, along with a geotech report. Wang said it was a sought-after location where such large sections were rare.
Barfoot & Thompson auction manager Murray Smith said that was a reminder to owners who worry about a shortage of bidders leading into the auction.
“We always say, ‘go through with it, you never know who’s quietly watching, who hasn’t made themselves known’,” he said.
A development site on Sandringham Road, close to Kingsland and Eden Park, sold for $2.6m. Photo / Supplied
“My advice to owners is the activity is there in the auction room and the chance for a sale is there. Don’t expect massive prices or a runaway price, but the chances of a sale have massively improved.”
Smith pointed to the return of higher-priced properties to the auction rooms since the election.
“We saw a switch going on after the election, everything jumped by about 30 to 40% – the number of properties, the number of bids and the number of pre-auction offers – in the two weeks after the election compared to the two weeks before.
“It was common to see properties in the $1m to $1.5m price bracket, but this week we saw five properties over $3m. Three of them sold, and one got to nearly $5m ($4.575m),” he said.
One of the top auction prices this week was $4.365m for a renovated house on John Street, Ponsonby. Photo / Supplied
The over-$3m sales included a four-bedroom bungalow in double grammar zone of St Leonards Road, Epsom, that went for $3.791m, well over its $3.2m CV and flying past the declared on-the-market price of $3.6m. A six-bedroom place on Acorn Street, Royal Oak, went for $3.3m (it had a CV of $4.8m) while a six-year-old five-bedroom house on Carnarvon Avenue, Glendowie, sold for $3.05m. It had a CV of $3.25m and records show it last sold just over three years ago for $2.5m.
Smith said that November’s auction slate was getting back to 2020 levels, with over 900 auctions booked across the company for the month.
“Not the big number of auctions of 2021, but decent,” he said.
In Bayleys auction rooms this week, a renovated four-bedroom house with a pool on John Street, Ponsonby, marketed by Edward Pack, sold for $4.365m. Records show it last sold seven years ago for $3.49m and had a CV of $3.95m
Another three-bedroom villa that Pack marketed on Dedwood Terrace, St Marys Bay, was withdrawn after going into negotiations at $3.6m and sold for an undisclosed price.
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