A Christchurch couple sold their lavish home on the hills for $3.05m and bought a new build just hours later.
The couple’s four-bedroom home on Scarborough Road, in Scarborough, sold under the hammer for an impressive $3.05m – $300,000 more than RV – after competitive bidding from two local buyers.
Bayleys listing agent Steve Ellis said it was a good result considering the house’s age.
His delighted vendors moved from one sale to the next, going unconditional just a few hours later on a smaller three-bedroom, new-build in Sumner, which had been priced at just under $2m.
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Ellis told OneRoof that the downsizing market in Christchurch was “significant” and was driving demand for single-level homes, which, he said, were few and far between in the city. “That’s what I’m trying to encourage developers to build more of because [my buyers] don’t want stairs.”
Other options were building the master suite downstairs and having the guest wing upstairs or installing a lift, he said.
“As soon as 70-year-olds walk in, who have quite good money to spend, they go ‘oh no we don’t want stairs’.”
The Kennedys Bush Road property also sold under the hammer after competitive bidding for $1.875m. Photo / Supplied
It was also this demand from downsizers that helped drive up the price of a rare riverside apartment last month.
The third-floor apartment in the Riverside Apartment block on Carlton Mill Road, in Merivale, sold under the hammer for $2.1m as downsizers and retirees fought over the spacious home.
Bayleys listing agent Adam Heazlewood told OneRoof at the time that most of the people looking at the apartment had been downsizers from the wider Canterbury area looking for a central location.
Meanwhile, a private four-bedroom, two-bathroom property on Kennedys Bush Road, in Kennedys Bush, also attracted three registered bidders, two of whom were competitive bidders including a buyer from Singapore who had not lived in New Zealand for 25 years and was bidding on it sight unseen.
However, the overseas buyer dropped out at $1.6m and after some negotiation, the house eventually sold to a local buyer for $1.875m, also at the Bayleys auction on Thursday,
Bayleys listing agent Raj Bhana said the shelter, aspect and setting was the real selling point for the home. “It’s almost a wee getaway from town.”
Bhana said they had noticed an uplift in buyers since the election and buyers now seem to have a sense of urgency to secure a property before Christmas.
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