Fifteen bidders fought at auction for a three-bedroom house in Auckland’s Mount Eden this week in a bidding war that hasn’t been seen for months, with the property selling for nearly $100,000 over CV.
Bidding for the tidy stucco and tile house in a gated 374sqm section on Parau Street “sailed way past its reserve”, said Unlimited Potential Real Estate agent Lisa Pringle, who marketed the property with Ronald Lim. It sold for $1.393 million, comfortably above its CV of $1.3m.
“We had 100 groups through the three weekends of open homes. One of my colleagues said ‘this is just like the old days’,” Pringle said, adding that five or six bidders put their hands up on the day.
She said that auctions were still the right way to sell a property as they give vendors the certainty of an unconditional sale. For this house, buyers were a mix of first-home buyers, several accompanied by “bank of mum and dad”, she said, as well as professionals moving up the ladder who wanted to get into Mount Eden. The eventual buyer was an investor.
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Pringle said that even if a property passes in at auction, if the final bid placed by the auctioneer is a vendor bid, buyers have a starting level for the subsequent sale for price by negotiation.
“We have plenty of cash buyers still looking who are left over from this campaign,” she said. Another property at Penrhyn Road in Mount Eden that passed in at auction after a vendor bid is back on the market.
A one-bedroom unit on Houghton Street, Meadowbank, sold for $402,500. Photo / Supplied
“A vendor bid means that we can work upwards from that number when we start negotiating,” Pringle said.
Barry Thom, co-owner of Unlimited Potential with Grant Lynch, said that another four-bedroom character home on Homai Street, Remuera, that was passed in at auction sold immediately after the auction at a price well above $4m.
He said his company’s agents are recommending auctions for about a third of the listings they are bringing to market this spring. That’s well up on the number going to auction over winter, but only about half of what it was last year as the market peaked.
“It’s a bit too soon to be definitive on the best process, as it depends what the property is. If it’s a good freestanding family home, we’d go with an auction. A home with issues that the banks won’t lend on, then not. There’s a real flight to quality,” Thom said.
“We’re transitioning from a very difficult market to something that potentially has a bit more life.
A four-bedroom 1960s home on 438sqm site on Ngapuhi Street, Remuera, sold for $1.62m. Photo / Supplied
“The jury’s out for what might happen between now and Christmas – even a month is a very long time in real estate,” he said.
In Barfoot & Thompson’s auction rooms this week more than a dozen properties sold under the hammer, some selling after back-room negotiation to reach their reserve price.
A four-bedroom 1960s home on a 438sqm site on Ngapuhi Street, Remuera, fetched $1.62m, just shy of its $1.625m CV.
A three-bedroom villa on Western Springs Road, Morningside, billed as a do-up, went for $1.77m. The CV on the 607sqm property, zoned for terrace houses and apartments, was $2.15m. Another smartly renovated villa on Lincoln Street, Ponsonby, sold after the auction. Its listing showed an asking price of $2.15m, but the eventual sale price was not disclosed.
A renovated three-bedroom villa on Larchwood Avenue, Westmere, sold for $2.4m. Photo / Supplied
A brand-new four-bedroom townhouse on Rosamund Avenue went for $1.315m.
The bargains of the week were for a one-bedroom unit on Houghton Street, Meadowbank, that sold for $402,500, below its $600,000 CV, and a pair of inner-city apartments mortgagee sales. A studio on Liverpool Street fetched $173,000 and a one-bedroom in an apartment block on Albert Street with remedial issues went for $125,000.
A three-bedroom villa on Western Springs Road, Morningside, zoned for apartments, sold for $1.77m. Photo / Supplied
Barfoot & Thompson auctioneer Murray Smith said that while buyers were finding it harder to commit, auctions still gave vendors “action, and action quickly”.
“Vendors are not gaining anything by not auctioning. Some of them want to retain their public face, scared if they don’t sell,” Smith said.
“Buyers are hustling for the bottom of the market, but they’ll be really disappointed if they wait until next year.”
In Bayleys auctions this week, a three-bedroom 1960s house on Victoria Avenue, Remuera, on the market for the first time in 30 years and with a CV of $3.9m, sold for an undisclosed sum, while a renovated three-bedroom villa on Larchwood Avenue, Westmere, sold for $2.4m.
