As the year draws to a close, we looked at what were the most popular listings on OneRoof in the year to the end of November.
Home-buyers were attracted in huge numbers to bargain properties – from a too good to be true pair of places in Auckland to tree-change fantasies around the country.
No 1 | 2 and 3/25 Simkin Avenue, St Johns, Auckland
A pair of leasehold properties in Auckland St Johns that One Agency real estate agency Tony Yu advertised as priced to sell topped the popularity, with the hard-to-believe price of $125,000 for the suburb just a few kilometres from blue chip Remuera.
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The number of viewings to the listing was helped by the fact the properties were listed for some 15 months, from May 2021, before they eventually sold.
Yu said the two two-bedroom properties (there was a third also listed) sold in July 2022 for “slightly under” their asking price.
“It was the location in St Johns and the price. But people don’t understand leasehold, you’d have to do the calculations and explain how it works,” said Yu.
“You could get good money if you renovated, if you did the calculations you could work out the risks of servicing the lease, which is $8500 per annum.”
Yu said that that lease on the land in St Johns, renewed every 21 years, is due for review in late 2026, but said a smart landlord who improved the property could still make a profit.
“You can’t get freehold here unless you pay $1.2m, you’re close to Mission Bay. If you spent the money well you could get good money.”
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No.2 | 7 Matai Street, Te Kuiti, Waikato
The price-tag of this two-bedroom cottage was popular with house-hunters. Photo / Supplied
Te Kuiti Property Brokers agent Mary Tapu said that while the two-bedroom cottage plus sleepout on Matai Street, in the central North Island’s King Country, is not in the best part of town, its $286,000 price tag drew interest.
It sold in September this year after four months on the market.
“It was a cheap price, it didn’t need work, it was ready to move in. It got lots of views, but not a lot of action from people,” Tapu said.
“It sold at the end of that bouyant market, to buyers from Auckland, who really wanted to move down here.”
She said that even properties under $300,000 are now struggling to move at the end of the year, despite Kainga Ora's first home buyers grant cap for the district of $400,000, as buyers get their heads around the new interest rates.
“And we’re not selling to Aucklanders now, it’s locals.”
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No.3 | 1/24 King Edward Avenue, Papakura, Auckland
A rendering of the planned townhouses at King Edward Avenue, in Papakura, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
The attractive pricing for a development of 20 terraced townhouses on King Edward Avenue, Papakura that was listed February this year, drew a lot of eyeballs, said the Barfoot & Thompson agent Mohinder Garg who marketed the development.
Prices started at $750,000 for a two bedroom, $800,000 to $850,000 for a three bedroom and between $950,000 and $1m for the six four-bedroom terraces. He said the freehold units of four, three and two-bedrooms were in a sought-after location in a newly developing neighbourhood in Papakura, in zone for both Rosehill College and Papakura Intermediate and handy to the railway station.
“Feedback has been it’s a good location, and a realistic builder. He’s not greedy, he wants to keep the ball rolling,” Garg said, adding that while only three of the 20 units have pre-sold, the experienced developer was starting construction in January with a planned finish date of the end of 2023.
Like many agents, Garg said the off-the-plan market had dried up because investor/traders who bought off the plans and flicked before the property settled weren’t seeing the chance to make profits of $50,000 or more.
“Anything aimed at investors and first home buyers is tough because the banks are making it very hard,” he said.
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No.4 | 34 Oregon Drive, Murupara, Whakatane
An affordable started home in Whakatane fetched $165,000 in May this year. Photo / Supplied
A two-bedroom home on Oregon Drive, Muripara that records show listed in February this year and sold May was asking $165,000.
Agent Fiona Marshall of McDowell Professionals, Rotorua, said that the affordable starter home on a 678 sqm site had been appraised for rental income of between $220 and $250 a week.
Marshall said that while the price is not super-cheap for a two-bedroom house, the tidy condition appealed.
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No.5 | 114a Waiheke Road, Onetangi, Waiheke Island
An artist's impression of what buyers could build in this Waiheke Island plot. Photo / Supplied
A 1381sqm block of bushland on Waiheke Island is still one of the year’s most viewed properties, after topping the charts through to October.
The property on Waiheke Road, 10 minutes from Onetangi beach, was listed with an asking price of just $580,000 with Waiheke Homes real estate agent Andrew Lanyon, who has been marketing the property since April, pointing out its proximity to Onetangi Beach, backing on to a reserve.
“The renders show an option for what people could build on the block," he said, about the drawings for a stylish black multi-level home cascading down the hill.
Tobias Roebuck-Ward, of Waiheke Homes, added:" With the most recent sale on this street being $3.25m, the opportunity here sounds fabulous."
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No.6 | 1a/16 Gore Street, Auckland Central
This apartment in Auckland CBD is cheap but buyers should be aware of the remedial issues. Photo / Supplied
While not quite the bargain apartment sales of earlier this month, when a desperate buyer let their inner-city Auckland pad in Market Place go for $95,000, the Gore Street apartment listed by Jesse Smith and Sidharth Palat of Apartment Specialists is asking $129,000.
Listed in April, the 47sqm inner city apartment was billed as having potential to add a second floor to the double height one-bedroom space in the Harbour City block, which has a pool and a gym.
However, the apartment block has remedial issues with complicated legal claims which a new owner would inherit, Smith said, adding that similar quality apartments without issues would be selling for around $600,000 to $700,000.
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No.7 | 171 Puriri Street, Castlecliff, Whanganui
This house was listed at $370,000 and eventually sold for $314,000. Photo / Supplied
Harcourts agent Shannon Jury who marketed the sturdy two-bedroom ex-State house on Puriri Street in Whanganui’s seaside suburb of Castlecliffe told OneRoof that he suspected the nearly six months on the market helped pull in viewers.
The house, billed as a perfect way to get on the property ladder was first listed in February this year, with a price that gradually moved down from $370,000 to $319,000 in September. It sold in October for $314,000 Jury said.
He added the two-bedroom house with a sleepout on a generous 700 sqm section was cheap, even for Whanganui, were places for $300,000 were hard to find.
“It’s a lot harder to get access to money, particularly for people with a house to sell and first home buyers are not keen on these new interest rates,” Jury said.
But the agent, a booster for the town, said out of towners can’t believe how good Whanganui is, with a thriving creative sector and tempting surf beach.
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No.8 | 27 Lot 13 -15 Taikata Road, Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland
The three-bedroom town houses on Auckland’s Te Atatu Peninsula were listed back in July last year by Ray White agent Winnie Leung.
Leung said the development of three-bedroom homes had been postponed multiple times before the developer withdrew, leaving the existing homes as rental units.
She suspects buyers were drawn to the proposed price of $1.1m for a three-bedroom terrace in the popular west Auckland suburb, but without a building consent the project never gained traction.
She said other projects she marketed at the same time have settled this month. Four townhouses in Forrest Hill, on Auckland’s North Shore that sold off the plans 10 months ago settled for between $960,000 and $1.1m, while buyers settled on another townhouse in Henderson which had been marketed 18 months ago for under $1m.
