A three-bedroom house from season three of The Block NZ sold under the hammer today for $3.182 million, raising the stakes for the teams currently battling it out in this year's show.
Bidding started at a high $2.9m - more than $1m above the property's 2017 CV - with three buyers pushing hard to secure the Auckland house.
The winning bid was from a couple downsizing from a larger home in neighbouring Mt Eden.
The couple, Julia and Rob, had made the pre-auction offer which brought the auction forward.
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The listing agents said the auction had been brought forward after the vendors had accepted a pre-auction offer.
The house on Newell Street, in Point Chevalier, had sold for $1.47m at the end of the 2014 season of The Block NZ, delivering second-placed contestants Maree and James a profit of $147,000.
The $3.182m sale today will be good news for this year's Block NZ teams. Newell Street is just a 10-minute walk from the Huia Street houses they are currently finishing up.
In its eight seasons, no Block house has cracked $2m during the televised auctions, but this season could change all that, with the current crop of homes gearing up for a spring auction.
The stylish interior of the Newell Street home. The house fetched $1.47m when it appeared on The Block NZ in 2014. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof's latest house price figures show the market has been running hot in Point Chevalier. The suburb's median property value jumped more than 30% in the last 12 months to $2.02m, with no property in the suburb selling for less than $1m this year.
In 2014, the median property value of the suburb was just over $900,000, and the winning house sold for $1.552m - $227,000 above the reserve. That home has a OneRoof valuation of $2.39m and a 2017 CV of $1.825m.
This season’s Block NZ houses, on Huia Street, in Point Chevalier, will soon go to auction. Photo / OneRoof
The listing agents for the Newell Street home, the Professionals' Lawrence and Derek von Sturmer, said the housing market in Point Chevalier was “crazy” right now.
The Von Sturmers also sold two brand-new townhouses in Newell Street today for $2.476m and $2.27m.
The buyers of the front townhouse, a four-bedroom home at 21a, were the lucky vendors of the Block house across the road. The buyers of the three-bedroom house at 21c were the one unlucky bidder at the auction for 21a. About 70 people watched both auctions, with about 6 bidders for each townhouse.
Derek told OneRoof: "I think these have set a benchmark for The Block to beat."
Above and below: The new-build townhouses which sold soon after the auction of the former Block house across the road. Photos / Supplied
The sale of Newell Street homes comes a day after an apartment that featured on season eight of The Block NZ sold under the hammer for $2.1m.
Bidding on the three-bedroom ground-floor home – one of five in a converted fire-station in Auckland’s Kingsland - started at $1.7m and the property went on the market at $1.9m.
The apartment was owned by former Block producer and TV supremo Julie Christie, and the sale price delivered her a profit, on paper, of $620,000.
