One of the cheapest buys at Auckland's auctions this week was an extremely run-down property in Randwick Park.
The three-bedroom house on Solvieg Place sold under the hammer for $470,000 - $300,000 less than its 2021 valuation.
Ray White agent Monika Maynard who marketed the property, said she couldn’t remember the last time she last saw a house in the area sell for less than $500,000, but it took a while for the sellers to adjust their price expectations on the near derelict weatherboard house on a cross-lease site.
“They’d seen all the stories from last year, but they eventually figured it out. They’d started a renovation but it was all too hard, nobody had lived there for a while,” she said.
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The buyer, who outbid three other investors and traders at the auction, is new to property investing but is a tradesman who can do the work himself, Maynard said.
“He’ll spend $150,000, everything needs doing, but will get $600 a week rent when it’s done,” she said.
“There are not many properties in Auckland you can get 10% yield these days.”
She said the auction for another property she marketed, a 20-year-old five-bedroom home on Lobelia Drive, in Goodwood Heights, “felt like August 2021”.
“There were seven bidders, then three people fought it out. There were 110 bids after it was declared on the market. We’d had 65 groups through the open homes.”
While buyer feedback had been around $1.3m to $1.4m, the hammer finally came down at $1.74m.
Over in Avondale, Barfoot & Thompson agent Anna Lechtchinski said buyer appetite in the suburb had dropped.
“Avondale [prices] have dropped 15% off their peak last year. Everything is dropping,” she said.
A three bedroom bungalow on Glendon Avenue, in Avondale, sold for $1.375m. Photo / Supplied
Lechtchinski said the suburb had a lot of young self-employed and contract workers who were feeling the effects of unstable incomes and more sensitive to changes in the economy, so were selling down now.
“They were over-committed three years ago, so they figure it’s better to sell now if they see a recession coming. There are empty shops, cafes that have closed in the last few months,” she said.
“The price impact is spilling into Waterview, and I see even Point Chevalier slowed in March.”
However, she said, her clearance rate at auctions is still 60%, higher than the market average, albeit at a new price level.
“I’m educating the vendors. A bungalow in Glendon Avenue sold yesterday at auction for $1.375m. I’d appraised that in November for $1.6m,” she said.
A buyer with a pre-auction offer of $4.75m snapped up a penthouse apartment on Remuera Road. Photo / Supplied
“But sellers are happy, they’ll take a lesser price because buying in Ponsonby or Mount Eden becomes doable. Prices have dropped over there too.”
In other Barfoot & Thompson auctions this week, a stylish three-bedroom penthouse apartment in the Kingsbridge on Remuera Road sold after a pre-auction offer of $4.75m. The buyer had seen the property 18 months ago, so snapped it up when it came back on the market.
Leila Macdonald, who marketed the property with David Macdonald said that buyers liked the older apartments, as they have high ceilings and a lot more space than modern new builds.
In Westmere, a striking contemporary four-bedroom house on Hope Street, marketed by Bayleys agent Blair Haddow, sold for $5.85m, well above its 2021 CV of $3.5m.
A luxury home on Hope Street, in Westmere, sold at auction for $5.85m. Photo / Supplied
- This article has been amended to remove the sale of a property on Henry Street, in Avondale.
