First-home buyers are going head-to-head for houses in Hamilton and surrounding towns with the cheaper homes between $400,000 and $800,000 attracting multiple offers.
A two-bedroom unit in Te Awamutu sold within hours of the new owners seeing it at its first open home, while the deadline for a near-new brick home in Glenview, Hamilton, was brought forward after nine offers were tabled within three days of it hitting the market.
The cross-lease unit on Cherry Lane hit the market last Thursday and by Sunday night had gone unconditional with an offer of $495,000 – just $4000 less than its asking price. The price was significantly less than its RV of $640,000.
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Lugtons listing agent Fraser Kilgour said it was his quickest-ever sale in his two years in the industry.
Kilgour said a family came through the first open home on Sunday and within hours had made an unconditional offer that the owners accepted later that night.
“No builder’s reporter, no solicitor, no finance clause and that was just easy for vendors, it just meant it was sold that night. There was no stress, it was easy.”
A three-bedroom home on Pickering Crescent, in Chedworth, sold for $689,500, which was $10,000 over the asking price. Photo / Supplied
Kilgour said buyers were acting quickly before anyone else had a chance to see it and some first-home buyers having to beat off conditional offers by investors and flippers.
“That sort of price bracket is very popular for the first-home buyers,” he said.
“A bit of FOMO starts to kick in again, they want to buy it before more people see it and it’s competitive again.”
Another couple managed to secure a three-bedroom house on Pickering Crescent, in Chedworth, as their first home.
The conditional buyers paid $689,000, which was $10,000 over the asking price to beat off the unconditional offers from investors and flippers.
“The vendor had to think about ‘do I accept this clean offer for sure at asking price or do I risk a five-day finance clause for $10,000 more and risk it crashing’.”
The risk paid off and both the first-home buyers and the vendors were stoked as the property was under contract within five days and sold in 10 days, he added.
Kilgour said first-home buyers seemed to like the transparency around an asking price and the fact they could make a conditional offer rather than having to spend up to several thousand dollars on a builder’s report and legal advice only to risk missing out on a property at auction.
All nine offers on a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Southbrook Close, in Glenview were from first-home buyers. Photo / Supplied
Lodge salesperson Nathan Smith said most of the first-home buyers he’s been working with were immigrants who received residency last year and have been saving their pennies hard to buy in New Zealand.
Smith said they usually had between $700,000 and $850,000 to spend and wanted near-new brick homes, which had created a huge demand for them.
A four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Southbrook Close, in Glenview, had nine offers, all from first-home buyers, within three days and sold for $875,000.
Smith said the price had exceeded the owner’s expectation.
A basic three-bedroom brick home on Eclipse Rise, in Flagstaff, was also hotly contested and received seven offers before the set deadline. The new owners were immigrants who had been renting a small unit in Claudelands and shelled out $867,000 for their first home in New Zealand.
An immigrant family fought off six other offers to buy a three-bedroom home on Eclipse Rise, in Flagstaff, for $867,000. Photo / Supplied
All the buyers wanted properties that were move-in ready, he said.
“If you’ve got a brick home in a reasonable location, fairly newish, it will just be absolutely snapped up.”
Red Bricks founder Rupert Bain said first-home buyers wanted homes that were ready to move into, freehold and had a garage.
“Still first-home buyers don’t like do-ups. If it needs too much work you don’t see them, which surprises me, but it’s been the case for a long time now in New Zealand. The sweat equity doesn’t exist.”
Anything under $750,000 appealed to first-home buyers, he said, but the cheaper the property the more interest there was.
“If you can find stuff under $500,000 you are going to see a lot more buyers to that property than you are at $750,000.”
Bain said with property prices dropping in Hamilton in the past two years there was now plenty in that price range in a range of suburbs.
“I’ve just come away from appraising a two-bedroom in Claudelands and it was really surprising how many sale stats there are in the $400,000s for Hamilton – there were dozens.”
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