A deceased estate with one of the best views of Auckland harbour has sold for $7.435 million - $1.855 million above CV.
On the market for the first time 52 years, the clifftop property at 689 and 685 Riddell Road, in Glendowie, was snapped up at an online auction called by Ray White Remuera today.
It had belonged to a former RNZAF wartime squadron leader, Allan "Skip" Watson, who died in 2012 aged 89, and his second wife Liz, who passed away recently.
The property, marketed by Steen Nielsen, was a unique offering in the current market: a 2,552sqm, near-level water facing site held in two titles in top suburb.
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In an interview with OneRoof before the auction, Nielsen described it as "one of the last jewels in the crown of Auckland’s coastline".
Watson, whose post-war career saw him become an executive at Air New Zealand and international rugby referee, bought the two titles, and the 1940s house that sits at 669 Riddell Road in 1968.
The view from the 2,552sqm property. Photo / Supplied
His daughter Lenore Donaldson told OneRoof last month the family had moved from Mt Eden and enjoyed the "glorious views with yachts on the water”. “It was really quiet and it stayed that way because the land around it meant we never got much noise,” she said.
She said Watson built the second-storey on the house, with narrow stairs up through a hall cupboard. “He knew about those views,” Donaldson said. “He was always up the ladder painting the house, even in his 80s, and he knew what was up there.”
She added: “It’s a beautiful, balanced house with great proportions that is very pleasing to the eye,” she said.
Nielsen says that after their 52 years in the home, Watson's family are delighted that the property is going to another family.
“They’ve got three kids who get to live the life that they lived. The buyers plan to either renovate or extend the original home, or build their forever home. All that land was the attraction.”
Nielsen said that as well as the five registered bidders, there were also 10 other buyers with conditional offers ready to negotiate if the property didn’t sell at auction. Some were awaiting engineering reports on stabilising the cliff, some were families who planned to sell off some of the land to fund renovations, while others were developers eyeing the huge parcel of land.
Bidding started at $4.25 million, go up in bids of$250,000 until just two bidders competed from $6 million. While Nielsen had had interest from overseas buyers, the eventual bidders were all locals.
“It feels brilliant. It was the biggest sale under the hammer for Remuera, so to be all virtual was something. It was a good day at the office.”
Ray White lead auctioneer John Bowring, who called the auction, said 19 out of 20 lots sold last night at Remuera, over $17 million of property.
“I don’t think I've ever been involved in a market like this last three months. Last week across the 180 Ray White offices we had 78 per cent success rate under the hammer. Anything above 75 per cent is incredible.
“It’s tough for buyers, but realistic vendors are getting the money. I think people are getting used to living with Covid now.”
The sale of 689 Riddell Road - which has a CV of $4.3 million - and 685 - which has a CV of $1.28 million - comes a week after another a clifftop home on the street fetched $6.25 million at auction.
The luxury five-bedroom house at 407 Riddell Road, marketed by Ray White Remuera agents Andrew Fava and Ross Tierney, sold for $1.35 million above CV.
