Twelve bidders competed for a stylishly renovated villa in Auckland's Grey Lynn this week before the hammer came down at $3.825m - $475,000 above CV.
Ray White agent Scott Wither, who marketed the four-bedroom home on Grosvenor Street, Grey Lynn, with Chloe Wither, said that over 100 groups had looked at the house – crowds, he said, that were comparable to the heated days of 2021.
It had a CV of $3.35m and had attracted a variety of buyers from across the spectrum, from first home buyers helped by parents, to local families and professional couple upsizing, and downsizers from both Herne Bay and eastern suburbs such as Remuera.
“We also had a swathe of ex-pats back in New Zealand from London. They are struggling to get their heads around our prices,” Wither said.
Start your property search
“Anything that doesn’t require any work just flies off the shelves. The fact that Grosvenor had a double garage with internal access really shifted the dial. That's rare in a heritage area and was the unquantifiable piece in our view.”
Buyers are clamouring for well-renovated properties like the house on Grosvenor Street, Grey Lynn as they are reluctant to embark on a building project in the current market. Photo / Supplied
Wither said his vendors had been inspired by the $4m price achieved in June for a similar renovated three-bedroom Grey Lynn villa in Farrar Street that achieved $635,000 over CV after six bidders competed.
“Our vendors saw that, and wanted to get ahead of the spring market, selling now when there is not a lot of other stock on the market,” Wither said, adding that “well polished” Grey Lynn properties on a good parcel of land, particularly those with good parking, were competing well with Ponsonby properties.
He said that buyers were selling their old houses before buying as they would struggle to secure bridging finance.
In Mount Eden, buyers paid $5.1m for a stylish three-year old five-bedroom house on Woodside Road. The auction for the 321sqm house in double grammar zone was brought forward within days of listing by a pre-auction offer. The property was on the market at $4.525m, but four bidders “took it up there” said the agent marketing the property, Steve Koerber of Ray White Remuera.
This three-bedroom villa on Farrar Street, Grey Lynn fetched $4.01m at auction in June. Photo / Supplied
He added that with simply not enough stock of well-done houses, a property like Woodside Road had huge demand.
In the same auction this week, a four-bedroom house on Upland Road also marketed by Koerber, with wife Nila, sold for $1.465m under the hammer.
The 1970s house on a cross lease section with a roomy backyard had a CV of $2.175m. Because of its condition, it was billed as a do-up, but Koerber said this was the most affordable four-bedroom home in double grammar zone and a buyer spending $500,000 on refurbishment would get a good house for under $2m.
A three-year old five-bedroom house on Woodside Road, Mount Eden, sold at auction for $5.1m . Photo / Supplied
“The potential to spruce it up and add significant value is blindingly obvious,” the Koerbers said in their marketing.
In Mission Bay, a completely renovated four-bedroom house on Bongard Street sold under the hammer for $4.1875m, comfortably more than its $4.05m CV.
Peter Cleave of UP Real Estate, who marketed the property with Myles Cleave, said that the property attracted good interest because it was completely done, and there were two or three bidders active in the auction.
“That’s an attraction as people have questions now around the costs, material, the time it takes to do the work themselves,” he said.
“Good quality stock around that $4m [price point] is slim. Generally people think it’s a bad time to be selling when actually it’s a good time. There are people who are cashed up and out in the marketplace.
“It’s the supply and demand equation, there’s not enough supply. As we go into summer, there’ll be a lot of properties and then buyers will get fussier.”
A renovated four-bedroom house on Bongard Street, Mission Bay, fetched $4.185m at auction. Photo / Supplied
In the Barfoot & Thompson auction rooms, where most properties are passing in, the realistic vendors of a three-bedroom house on Seaview Road, Remuera, sold their house under the hammer for $2.05m.
Agent Ian Griffiths, who marketed the double grammar zone with Silvia Poletti, said that the vendors were “not being ridiculous’, accepting a market appraisal rather than the unrealistic CV.
“The CV of $2.9m was completely ridiculous, this house was a do-up. We appraised it last year for very close to $3m, but when [the vendor] came back to sell it this year, the price came back and back. The auction was brought forward a week by a pre-auction offer, and the house sold for our appraisal price," Griffiths said.
“If the price is right and vendors are realistic, we’re seeing more activity.”
Realistic vendors sold their three-bedroom house on Seaview Road, Remuera, for $2.05m. Photo / Supplied
Griffiths said that the house being just inside the Victoria Avenue Primary school boundary helped attract family buyers, but generally there was a very limited interest in properties that needed work.
Bargains this week were the $85,500 paid for a one-bedroom apartment on Queen Street in the city, which had remedial issues. It had a CV of $180,000 but the vendor didn’t want to wait while repair construction was under way, the agents said in their marketing.
A two-bedroom apartment on Broadway, Newmarket fetched $466,500 in auction. Billed as a mortgagee sale, the apartment next to the Newmarket train station in double grammar zone had a CV of $630,000.
A one-bedroom apartment in Pollen Street, Grey Lynn fetched $524,000 under the hammer at Bayleys’ auctions, comfortably over its 2021 CV of $470,000.
In South Auckland, a 1970s three-bedroom house on a cross-lease site in Robertson Road, Favona, near Mangere sold under the hammer for $566,000. In original condition, the house was pitched at investors and bargain hunters, and sold for well under its $650,000 CV.
