An elderly homeowner could end up selling her one and only home for just $1 as she looks to move out of the now uninhabitable dwelling.
The owner and her husband bought the house at 115 St George Street, in Papatoetoe, after moving to New Zealand from the Islands 40 years ago and have done very little to it.
Ray White listing agent Uros Bojovic said the house was falling apart and unliveable in its current state.
The property has an RV of $1.675m and $1.65m of that is land value.
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The retro lino has been partly ripped off the kitchen floor, the carpet is threadbare, and the dated yellowed wallpaper is either missing or peeling off the walls.
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“It’s a complete do-up. There’s no way anybody could live in there.”
The owner had found a newer home to move into and had decided to sell the property at a $1 reserve auction to show she was seriously motivated about selling, he said.
“She can’t live there anymore.”
The 1950s brick and tile property is on a 1429sqm section and is likely to attract developers due to being zoned terraced houses and apartments. It is down a long driveway and has a favourable height-to-boundary ratio due to backing onto the Papatoetoe Library car park.
The property needs a major renovation and some of the lino in the kitchen is missing and the wallpaper is peeling off. Photo / Supplied
The property is accessed down a long driveway and backs on to the Papatoetoe Library car park. Photo / Supplied
Bojovic said it was one of the last remaining large sites in the central location because most of them had already been carved up developers.
“If a developer was to pick it up for under $1m – it would definitely be a good buy.”
The property could also attract flippers, he said, but would need considerable work to bring it up to scratch and make it habitable again. However, with it being sold for a $1 reserve it could quite possibly be picked up for a price that would make it worth their while, he added.
Bojovic said there had only been a handful of people who had shown interest in next Tuesday’s auction so far so someone could end up getting themselves a real bargain.
“How much more motivation does it scream than a $1 reserve?”
“Either everyone doesn’t think it’s a $1 reserve or they think I’m joking. The phone has been pretty dead on it, which is really surprising.”
Earlier in the year several defected South Auckland homes advertised with $1 reserves attracted a flurry of interest, eventually selling under the hammer for more than half a million dollars.
A burnt-out property e on Roscommon Road, in Clendon Park, marketed with a $1 reserve sold for $661,000 in February in a hotly contested auction that attracted 32 registered bidders.
In July a run-down shack on Fitzroy Street, in Papatoetoe, sold for $510,000 after going to auction with a reserve of just $1.
But not all auctions with $1 reserves have achieved such surprising results and a troubled apartment on Carrington Road sold under the hammer for just $1 after only one person bid for it at a City Sales auction in July.
- 115 St George Street, in Papatoetoe, Auckland, goes to auction on December 5
