- A renovated Remuera home sold for $7.41 million, the highest auction price this year.
- The five-bedroom house, designed by Horace Massey, attracted six registered bidders.
- Bayleys agent Gary Wallace highlighted the value of auctions for high-end properties.
A renovated trophy home in Auckland’s Remuera sold under the hammer today for $7.41 million – the highest residential auction price this year.
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The five-bedroom house on Orakei Road, designed in the 1940s by Horace Massey, had been extensively renovated by its owner of six years.
The quality of that work is what drew out the crowds, said Bayleys listing agent Gary Wallace. “We had 80 groups through the property. If you bring a quality home to market, all of a sudden, quality buyers appear."
The stunning designer kitchen, which is open plan with the family room, features exquisite sculpted, veined marble. Photo / Supplied
The five-bedroom, four-bathroom home sits on a 905sqm site, and has a loft above triple garaging, with plentiful off-street parking. Photo / Supplied
Six buyers registered to bid at what was a heated auction, which kicked off at $5m but quickly rose in increments of around $10,000 to $7m, when the property was declared on the market.
Another nine minutes of fast-paced bidding between the last two parties followed before the hammer came down at $7.41m. All up, 69 bids were made over 25 minutes.
The new owners are locals. Wallace said they had not been actively looking for a new home until the Orakei Road property hit the market.
“It’s one of those properties that people keep an eye on."
He added: "We had buyers with the capacity to spend up to $8m, so this house was always going to find its value.”
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Records show the property last sold six years ago for $4.85m and had a CV of $5.6m. Wallace said the CV did not reflect the extent or quality of the renovations the vendors had carried out.
When the house went on the market earlier this month, the owner told OneRoof that she was a Massey fan, having earlier owned a place by the architect on Victoria Avenue. She called on interior designer Danielle Bates to do a new kitchen, all new bathrooms, and a complete re-work of the upper floor, but wanted the new look to be in keeping with the historic home.
The five-bedroom house has multiple living areas, a self-contained nanny or teen studio above the garage, multiple marble-clad bathrooms, and a louvre-covered loggia overlooking the pool.
The homeowner was a fan of Horace Massey, so modernised the house in keeping with his well-known style. Photo / Supplied
Another house on Orakei Road set the residential auction price record last year when it sold for $12.8m. Photo / Supplied
Wallace said that high-net-worth buyers were active in the market, noting that his team had sold 20 properties worth over $7m in the past two years.
He said the sale Orakei Road showed there was value in taking homes at the upper end of the market to auction. “It’s really interesting. Vendors will say, ‘I’ll never go to auction because my property is too valuable’ - and that might be a $5m property. Well, here’s one at $7.41m. It’s not about the price, it’s about the process.”
Earlier this month, Ray White sold a trophy home on Lucerne Road, in Remuera, for $6.6m at auction after bidding from five buyers.
New Zealand's residential auction price, of $12.8m, was set last year for another Arts & Crafts property on Orakei Road, well over its $10.2m CV. That property was marketed by Barfoot & Thompson agents Cindy Yu and Linda Galbraith.
“These days, buyers love the transparency of auctions. Some vendors, they’ve had a bad experience, so we’ve got to be mindful and give them the confidence,” Wallace said. “This vendor, she said, ‘I love auctions.' She is just overwhelmed by the result.”
Mark Macky, chief executive of Bayleys Real Estate Group, said buyers were starting to see that the economy was starting to turn the corner. “Deal numbers are normalising, and while there is a lot of stock, sales levels are still good, so inventory is chunking down,” he said.
“Good campaigns for the right properties are seeing competition.”
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