A 1960s house across the road from Government House in Auckland’s Epsom sold under the hammer for $5.302 million after nearly a solid hour and a half of bidding.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Linda Galbraith, who marketed the four-bedroom home on Glenfell Place with colleague Alex Baker, said the auction was the longest of her 30-year career.
The online auction opened on Thursday at 11.25am with an opening bid of $4m – $650,000 above CV. By 11.29am, the house was on the market after a bid of $4.4m. Seventy-seven minutes later at 12.46pm – after a total of 285 bids – the house finally sold, with the buyer beating the competition with an extra $1000 bid.
“We had three bidders online and four by phone with agents in rooms. One of the phone bidders dropped out, then reappeared later with another $200,000; another online bidder said they could have kept going but after an hour and a half they were just too exhausted and didn’t know when it would end,” Galbraith said.
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“The last two just battled it out. Needless to say, the vendors are ecstatic.”
The property is single-level on 1351sqm of flat grounds, and is opposite Government House. Photo / Supplied
Galbraith added: “You can’t subdivide the 1351sqm of land, but people were factoring probably another $3m to do either a complete new build or a big renovation.
“It’s opposite Government House, in a coveted neighbourhood, minutes from Newmarket and the heart of Grammar zones. This area around Mountain Road is having a real renaissance, it’s very specialised now.”
Being a neighbour to Government House means owners enjoy the orchestra from the yard when there are events across the road. Photo / Supplied
Barfoot & Thompson auctioneer Murray Smith who called the auction says the price tag is an online lockdown auction record for the company. Earlier this year, Smith and Galbraith smashed auction records when a Greenlane house marketed by Galbraith and called by Smith sold under the hammer for $9.9m in March.
Galbraith said that marketing the property through level 4 lockdown worked in its favour as the agents could qualify the 33 buyers who registered to view the property once permitted in level 3.
“Open homes are history. Why expose the vendor when you can have only buyers with serious interest, they’re qualified and you can have quality time. Why would anyone think there’s a better way than one-on-one?”
Buyers will expect to spend at least $3m renovating or building a new home on the exclusive property. Photo / Supplied
Baker and Galbraith are now tapping would-be vendors to find properties for the six bidders who missed out.
The owners of the classic, four-bedroom mid-century home, inspired by the designs of legendary Frank Lloyd Wright, wanted to stay close to the quiet and secluded Glenfell Place, at the foot of Mount Eden. They had put in a new kitchen, and relished the semi-self-contained one-bedroom flat as well as the many living rooms, study and huge grounds.
They earlier told OneRoof that they had occasionally been able to overhear parties at Government House, especially when there was an orchestra playing.
“An earlier owner of our house is believed to have added a second driveway at 15 Castle Drive, next to Government House in the hope of being invited to functions there,” they said.
- Additional reporting Louise Richardson
