A luxury clifftop home overlooking Auckland harbour has sold under the hammer for $6.25 million – less than two hours before the city went into an alert level three lockdown.
The auction for 407 Riddell Road, in Glendowie, had already been brought forward to this evening after intense interest from buyers but it was brought forward again to 10am following the government's Covid-19 announcement last night.
The five-bedroom house, which was marketed for sale by Ray White Remuera agents Andrew Fava and Ross Tierney, sold for $1.35 million above CV after strong competition at the end from two bidders.
Tierney said the vendors had decided to bring forward the auction before the lockdown so they could have all the bidders and the auctioneer in the same room.
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"We called people at midnight last night and four of [the five registered bidders] could make it. Bids went up in lots of $250,000, until there were two bidders fighting it out. I've never seen bids go up in quarter of a million jumps like that before," Tierney said.
Fava said that they knew it was a great campaign when more than 46 groups came through the property, all expecting to spend well over $5 million. Viewers were from around the world - Singapore, United States and South Africa - but all had permanent residency in New Zealand.
"This is the highest sale price in the bays this year. As you can imagine, the vendors are thrilled and happy."
In the same heated Ray White Remuera auction, another property, at 61 St Johns Road, Meadowbank, sold for $1.5 million. And a property at 20 Komaru Street, in Remuera, sold for $2.015 million, while 35c Saxon Street, Waterview, sold under the hammer for $990,000.
Ray White chief auctioneer John Bowring said: "Five out of five selling this morning tells us that there are a lot of people with pre-approved loans in their pocket and they just want to get it done."
In an interview with OneRoof last week, the owner said the 1970s-build house had been extensively renovated over the years.
She said the house was great for families with kids and had a home theatre, sunken outdoor dining area with fireplace, swimming pool, cricket net and bowling machine.
She also added five beehives. “There are so many flowers around Glendowie and our bees supply plenty of honey."
