A uninsured home that needs earthquake repairs sold under the hammer in Christchurch last week for $597,000, leaving both the trustees and agents stunned.
Half a dozen property traders battled it out for the three-bedroom, one-bathroom home on Glenmore Avenue, in Casebrook, at the Harcourts Gold auction on Thursday, with the eventual sale price exceeding the property’s RV of $580,000.
Harcourts Gold agent Debbie Soper said the auction was a “cracker”.
“For an ‘as is, where is’ in Casebrook, which we all sort of saw as being in the $400,000s, $597,000 was just nuts.”
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Bidding opened at $220,000, but most bidders in the room had dropped out by the time it reached the high $400,000s, she said. The auctioneer announced the property as being on the market at $500,000 and by the time the bidding reached $540,000 there were just two buyers left.
“Two people were really, really fighting it out and trying to get rid of the other one, and they both just hung in there as long as they could and the underbidder just couldn’t – it got to the stage where it just didn’t make sense,” she said.
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The property was located down a long, shared driveway making access to the large 1123sqm section tricky, she said. It was also in an “original and raw” condition and even the toilet seat was missing.
Some wanted to do up the property and resell it, while others saw potential in developing the land or adding a second dwelling. One bidder only viewed the property minutes before the auction and entered the room just as the bidding kicked off.
“Not everybody wanted to develop that section either, most people were looking to repair the house, update it, and put it back on the market. But the margin will be pretty slim to do that at that level, so you’ve got to make the section work really.”
The Glenmore Avenue home was in original condition. Photo / Supplied
The large 1123sqm section helped draw in buyers. Photo / Supplied
The trustees who put the property on the market after the elderly owner moved into a rest home three months ago attended the auction. “The trustees could tell this was insane ... they held their poker faces really well.”
Soper said the sale price was higher than recent sales on nearby Farrington Avenue, where repaired properties in better condition and zoned for the desirable Burnside High School had sold in the mid-$500,000s.
A three-bedroom, one-bathroom home with only an “as is, where is” garage on Farrington Avenue sold for $565,000 in February, and a neighbouring property on the same street which had been repaired sold for $550,000 in June.
She said “as is, where is” properties “go really well” and the market overall was gaining momentum on the back of a strong, steady winter.
“I said to someone yesterday, they are always selling for as much as the repaired properties at the moment. But it depends on what it is and where it is as well. To be fair having the big section was an enticer, but for most people they couldn’t make it work.”
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