A modest three-bedroom 1950s home in Auckland's Panmure sold at auction this week for $3.75 million, handing the vendor a $2.31m profit in just over three years.
The South Auckland house was listed the day of lockdown, said Barfoot & Thompson agent Jane Wang, who marketed the property with David Wang. While the pair knew there was huge interest from developers for the flat 946sqm site across the road from the park and Tamaki Estuary, Jane Wang said they were still surprised at the record price.
“Another 958sqm property on the same street sold in early June for $2.81m and that was a record and the trigger for our owners to sell. We’d had pre-auction offers for low $2m, we didn’t expect to get $1m more than three months ago.”
“People look differently at Panmure now. I love how beautiful it is near the water, close to [the] eastern bays and transport. I’ve been selling here for 19 years and it’s the golden triangle of Kings Road, Queens Road and River View. We’re just across the same water as Half Moon Bay, and it’s twice the price there.
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Dunkirk Road in Panmure is over the Tamaki Estuary from pricier Half Moon Bay, but shares the same sea views. Photo / Supplied
“I’ve always believed its day would happen, this is a dream and that figure is out of all our imagination.”
Wang told OneRoof that the buyer is an experienced developer with other projects around Panmure.
“They know what they’re doing, they’re confident and they’ve got the architect and building team lined up."
Barfoot & Thompson auctioneer Murray Smith said the auction was one of the longest he’d called, with 137 bids over 40 minutes as at least four bidders steamed past the on-the-market price of $2.92m and were still fighting it out past $3.6m.
In July, developers paid $2.81 million - $770,000 more than its 2017 council valuation - for another property on Dunkirk Road, Panmure. Photo / Supplied
Wang said she had sold the Dunkirk Road house three years ago to the owner who had bought the property with the help of his mother. Not surprisingly, he too is stunned by the price.
Yesterday’s auction also tipped the return of non-development properties to the post-lockdown market, with a four-bedroom character villa in a double grammar zone on Kingsview Road in Mount Eden reaching $3.8m, well above its $3.01m pre-auction offer, and a three-bedroom villa on Lloyd Avenue in Mount Albert, on the market for the first time in over 40 years, fetching $2.975m.
A house on Lloyd Avenue in Mount Albert sold for $2.975m, more than $1m above its $1.95m CV. Photo / Supplied
At the other end of the scale, a charmingly renovated old-school, one-bedroom bach on Rayner Road, Piha went for $1.11m.
The auction-room pick up comes on the back of the surprisingly good September figures announced by Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson on Tuesday. The company sold 666 properties in the nearly full month of lockdown and listed another 977 for sale, which Thompson said was “impressive” and “outstanding”.
“The public is now far more accepting of the use of online technology and virtual viewing and this is helping the market to continue to operate,” he said.
The company sold 57 $2m-plus properties, the second highest number ever beaten only by last year's 84 properties selling in that upper bracket. And while new listings are at half what they were last September, as the post-Covid market really took off, Thompson said they were not far off the typical 1200 to 1500 of past Septembers.
He expects a big lift in October and November as agents have supplied online appraisals for would-be vendors ready to put their properties on the market. While auctions so far have mostly been for properties listed just on or before lockdown, Thompson said new listings are now appearing and around 60% to 70% of vendors are opting to sell by auction.
“Vendors are trying to beat the market. The shortage of listings is across all price ranges, the really higher priced properties tend to come on for summer when the swimming pool and tennis court look their best.”
