A young high school teacher has come out on top after paying $620,000 for a quirky dome-shaped home on Auckland’s Waiheke Island.
The one-bedroom property on Bay Road, in Ostend, was inundated with offers after hitting the market at the end of last month with an asking price of $599,000.
Bayleys agent Sherryn El Bakary told OneRoof she received four conditional offers property within 36 hours of the listing going live.
Read more:
Start your property search
- Young first home buyers in auction fight for 'leaky' home in posh suburb
- Burning down the house: When bad things happen to agents at open homes
- First-time buyers spending $2.5m, expats driving up prices - welcome to Onehunga
The 60sqm home, which sits on a 1012sqm section, is made up of two connected igloo-shaped domes and had been pitched as a “bargain buy” by El Bakary.
As soon as potential buyers saw the asking price $599,000 – well below the 2021 CV of $890,000 – El Bakary’s phone started ringing hot.
“It went live on a Monday evening and I was inundated with calls and emails on the Tuesday. I said to myself, ‘Right, we’re having a pop-up open home that day from 4pm to 5.30pm’.” The next morning she received the offers.
The vendor, who had paid $386,000 for the property back in 2007, accepted the teacher’s $620,000 offer as she met his requirements of being a first-home buyer and a local.
“The best offer was from a lovely secondary school teacher who absolutely loved the quirkiness of it all. She’s quite happy to get in there and roll her sleeves up, work hard and get it all waterproofed. The vendor is such a lovely philanthropic man and he really wanted it to go to this girl.”
Inside the Bay Road home. The new owner plans to upgrade the property. Photo / Supplied
The dome-shaped home looks a bit like a cave. Photo / Supplied
The home, which El Bakary had described as a “cute cave” in her listing, is one of a number of dome-shaped properties that were built on the island in the 1980s. Most have ended up being removed for redevelopment, or let out as Airbnbs.
El Bakary said the domes left impression on visitors. “My manager, when he went through, said, ‘Oh, I’m expecting a dinosaur to poke his head through the window’.”
She told OneRoof that the main dome was linked to a second smaller dome via an external hallway. “When you walk into the main dome it’s a dining room, kitchen and lounge, with a circular staircase to the bedroom upstairs. Behind the kitchen is the bathroom. It’s very compact.”
The vendor had originally planned to redevelop the site but time had slipped away from him and he instead decided to sell, preferably to a first-home buyer.
“He was going to pull down the domes on the section, which is a prime site. However he’s older now and it had got past him,” El Bakary said.
“He decided instead to sell off the property, but he wanted it to go to a first-time buyer. That was his ideal scenario.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale on Waiheke Island
