A house on a cross lease selling for close to $4 million and a do-up with no toilet or bathroom fetching more than $2m – the latest examples of Auckland heated property market.
As the latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand showed the country’s median house price jumping almost 30% to $820,000 in the last 12 months, auction sales in Auckland this week underscored a strong desire to secure real estate at any cost.
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A run-down three-bedroom villa on a 480sqm section in the popular Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn was snapped up for $2.075m by a phone bidder at Barfoot and Thompson’s auction on Thursday.
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The property, which had been owned by the same family for 60 years, had been billed by the listing agents Ryan Harding and Matt O’Rourke as the "most affordable" way to buy a "character" villa in the inner-city suburb.
Listing photos showed the decaying home stripped back to its bare bones, with rust on the corrugated roofing and what appeared to be a torn-out space where the bathroom once was.
"Lacking a bathroom and in need of urgent renovation, make no mistake 39 Ariki Street is the most affordable character entry to home ownership available in Grey Lynn," the listing stated.
In a video advertising the house, Harding said: "Don't underestimate just how much of a do-up this property is."
The Ariki Street villa lacked a bathroom and toilet. Photo / Supplied
Bidding on the property, which has a 2017 CV of $1.65m, started at $1.7m, jumped to $2m, then paused briefly for negotiations before the auctioneer declared it on the market at $2.05m. Bidding continued until a late phone bid of $2.075m secured the home and ended the auction.
Last year, Harding told OneRoof that a $2m price tag was not unusual for do-up villas in the area. In February, a weather-beaten three-bedroom villa with no off-street parking in Grey Lynn’s Harcourt Street sold for $2.23m, while a tired three-bedroom villa in neighbouring Ponsonby sold for for just $3m in May.
In another sign of Auckland’s heated market, a five-bedroom villa in Greenlane sold under the hammer for $4.9m - $1m above its CV and $400,000 above the reserve.
A five-bedroom villa on Wheturangi Road, in Greenlane, Auckland, sold for $1m above its CV. Photo / Supplied
The grand villa on Wheturangi Road, within the city’s valuable double grammar zone, was snapped up by sold by a buyer relocating to Auckland from the regions.
The listing agent, Bayleys’ Sarah Liu, said that the house was only on the market for two weeks.
“I had the buyer calling me about 20 minutes after the listing went live. We had more than 50 groups through the house. We expected there would be competition, as there is not much choice for spacious character houses,” she said.
“This is the best street in Greenlane and there are quite a few people looking in that $4m to $5m price range, even $5m to $6m.”
What’s notable about the house is that it is on a cross lease section, which buyers in the $m-plus price range tend to overlook.
Liu says that although the house is cross lease, the house at the back has their own independent driveway and shares the same freehold title land.
"It doesn't really matter. But cross lease usually reduces the price a little bit."
Liu said that in the past month she had concluded two deals in Remuera, one for $11m and the other for $15m, while late last year she sold another central Auckland property for more than $17m.
Jen Baird, chief executive at REINZ, said the market was continuing to defy expectations.
“Those buyers hoping for a bargain over winter might be disappointed, and today’s data really points to how important it is to address the housing supply issues we have,” she said.
“We’ve talked about FONFA (the fear of not finding anything) before, but with less than 14,000 properties available for sale, this is becoming a real issue across parts of the country – especially when houses are selling as quickly as they are at the moment.
“Looking at the Auckland picture, we’ve seen another record median price and three districts reach new record medians showing how strong the Auckland market is.”
