In one of the first big post-lockdown auctions for Auckland for family homes, buyers paid top prices for properties in Remuera, Parnell and Mangere Bridge.
Huge auction results through lockdown have been almost entirely from developers buying land zoned for townhouses, sight unseen, while family home sellers and buyers have sat on the sidelines.
But now family home listings from pre-lockdown are getting their chance. A large home near the water at Farm Cove at Auckland’s Eastern beaches fetched $4m earlier in the week and today it was central Auckland’s turn.
In Bayleys' auction a four-bedroom 1920s home on Seascape Road fetched $3.84m, more than $1m above its ratings valuation of $2.724m and a nice return for the owners who paid $180,000 for it back in 1984. And on the Upland Road corner of Remuera Road, a shingled-style three-bedroom 1990s town house went for $3.295m. Just five years ago it had changed hands for $2m.
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The house with water views attracted family buyers, not just developers. Photo / Supplied
The listing agent for both properties, Bayleys' Gary Wallace, said they had hit the market just as lockdown began, so they had paused the auction date.
Buyer interest was high all through level 4, with the agents using the time to qualify buyers to make the most of the limited spots allowed when viewing re-opened under last week’s level 3.
From Friday, the Real Estate Authority allowed more than two groups through a property, with the appropriate masking, social distancing and cleaning.
A townhouse on Remuera Road sold under the hammer for $#3.275m. Photo / Supplied
“Buyers are really quite aggressive; they just don’t want to miss out. They’re bidding hard and fast and are just unstoppable. It’s amazing,” Wallace said.
“Seascape Road was a big fight, with people bidding up in $25,000 lots – usually towards the end it’s more like $1000.
“Both properties had eight or nine bidders each. The extraordinary thing is that pre-lockdown our clearance rates were around 78%. But since we’d been doing virtual auctions [in level 4 and 3] that’s up to 90%.”
Wallace told OneRoof that despite their similar price points, each property attracted different buyers with around half of the interest in Seascape Road from developers, attracted by its big site and west facing seaviews, as well as its mixed suburban zoning.
Five bidders competed for two-bedroom Parnell Road apartment that sold for $1.921m. Photo / Supplied
Like most agents, Wallace is now facing a tight season to get new listings on to the market and sold in time for Christmas, with some vendors still cautious about marketing during Auckland’s lockdown.
“I’m saying to vendors why hold off. This is the perfect market to sell – there's pent-up demand and an all-time low in stock. Buyers want to buy into premium areas and they’re not making any more of it,” Wallace said.
“A lot of people are stressed by level 4 and level 3, they’re not aware that sales have been incredibly successful. These are extraordinary prices.”
A stylish two-bedroom apartment in the Trinity building on Parnell Road sold for nearly $2m after five registered bidders pushed the hammer down at $1.912m.
Bayleys agent Fleur Denning said the price was exceptional for a two bedroom, but some buyers specifically wanted an apartment in this block and had waited the nearly two months to secure it.
Again, the property had gone on the market just before lockdown, so Denning pushed back the auction to give buyers a chance to second and third viewings in the one week of level 3.
“Everyone loved the north facing courtyard and garden and that you could just walk out the gate and across the road for coffee.”
A 1970s three-bedroom house on Ambury Road, near Ambury Park, Mangere Bridge sold for $1.88m. Photo / Supplied
But it was not just properties in the blue-chip eastern suburbs that saw hard competition.
Six bidders pushed the price of a three-bedroom 1970s house in a charming 1259sqm garden next to Ambury Park on Ambury Road in Mangere Bridge to $1.88m.
Bayleys agent Jos Verey said the property had only just been listed on the Tuesday of lockdown, so again, she used the 35 days of level 4 to qualify buyers ready to show them through in level 3.
“When we got a pre-auction offer sight unseen, we knew there was money out there,” Verey told OneRoof, adding that the owners of 28 years eventually brought the auction forward after accepting another pre-auction offer.
Bidding was fierce – the first bid was $115,000 above the opening offer. Verey said the lucky winners had been renting for six months and had missed out on another four-bedroom property on the same road that had sold in August for $1.8m. A third property on the street sold the same month for $1.735m.
“They’re going to make this their home for the next 30 years too. And the five under-bidders who missed out are all pretty specific, they want Mangere Bridge and the land and the lifestyle. One of them was crying. “
