While the auction heat is coming back to Auckland, few auctions would have had the auctioneer pause proceedings to ask bidders to cool down.
That was a first for Ray White Parnell agent Jasper Foo who, with colleague Miko Xu, had brought forward the auction on a tired brick and tile home in Mount Eden.
“The auctioneer had to pause the auction to say ‘please don’t intimidate each other’. The final two bidders were saying to each other in Mandarin ‘I’m buying this for myself, please don’t bid, go elsewhere’.
“They each thought the other bidder was a developer, but they were both buying their own home,” Foo told OneRoof, adding that the second bidder, who had made the pre-auction offer, missed out by $1000.
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The hammer came down at $1.712 million after a torrid 85 bids – $282,000 above the pre-auction offer and $412,000 above the agents’ appraisal expectations.
The property had a CV of $1.7m.
The elderly owners, who can now buy a new, warm townhouse, were in tears Foo said, after making so much more than they’d expected. Records show they had paid $590,000 for the house 20 years ago.
The three-bedroom brick and tile home was billed as having potential. Photo / Supplied
The property, which has a CV of $1.7m, last sold in 2003 for $590,000. Photo / Supplied
“This was unbelievable. It’s a huge change in their finances.
“Everyone had told them their $1.43m pre-auction offer was a good offer. Three weeks earlier a two-bedroom character bungalow on a bigger section in the next street over, Shackleton Road, had sold for $1.672m so this was a good offer on a smaller section.”
Foo said the amount of interest in the three-bedroom brick and tile home on Landscape Road, Mount Eden, had surprised both his elderly vendors, their son and the agents themselves. Over 50 groups attended the two weekends of open homes – double the normal numbers – and six bidders registered for the auction when it was brought forward.
Foo and Xu had billed the house as a “canvas of possibilities” and a “visual treat that adds a touch of wonder”, adding the house was above the flood plain, had Sky Tower views and elevation, but needed work.
“You'd be looking at $150,000 just to get it tidy and add insulation.”
Buyer interest was a mix of homeowners looking for a do-up project for their own home and professional property flippers, back in the market after a year or two hiatus. The few first-home buyers who saw it found the original-condition 1950s home too daunting, Foo said, but others spotted the potential of the solid brick and tile construction, wood floors, basement rumpus room and garaging.
Buyers were mostly home owners and flippers interested in renovating, rather than bowling, the 1950s property. Photo / Supplied
Three weeks earlier a two-bedroom bungalow on nearby Shackleton Road, Mount Eden, also a do-up, sold at auction for $1.672m. Photo / Supplied
The 577sqm site is zoned for suburban density, but developers couldn’t make the numbers work at the higher sales price.
“Now I’ve got three flippers who missed out saying ‘if you find any other blank canvases, tell me and I’ll come’. The flippers are only just appearing,” Foo said.
“Most people want to buy [an already done up] product, but some home buyers don’t want something that has been flipped because some are done in such a cheap way – they make it look nice but then it breaks down.”
Ray White agent Duke Yu, whose buyer was the successful bidder on the Landscape Road house, said his client had been looking for four months for a subdividable property around the suburbs of Mount Albert, Epsom, Remuera and Mount Eden but had missed out on some earlier auctions.
“She wanted to build a house for herself and one she could rent out for income. There’s not much stock so she decided to really go for it this time, we told her to get ready to go to $1.7m,” he said, adding that another buyer he was helping had bid to $1.6m before stopping.
Yu said his client was still figuring out whether she will renovate the existing house for herself and add a second rental, or demolish and start again.
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