Some Auckland properties were withdrawn from planned auctions last week week due to Auckland’s flood event.
Others escaped damage but owners still postponed their auctions, and others went ahead getting good turnouts despite the weather and with some selling under the hammer.
Marian Tolich, a Barfoot &Thompson auctioneer, says the week was affected by the torrential rain. Three properties she was auctioning were withdrawn from the market due flood damage while another property had its auction pushed back a week.
“That was a Mt Eden property,” Tolich said. “There was nothing wrong with it, it’s just the owners felt the numbers from over the weekend would be low.”
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For the two auctions that did go ahead, there was a strong turn-out and good bidding, which showed there were still buyers out there, she said.
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A three-bedroom character bungalow on a half site on Epworth Avenue, in Royal Oak, sold for $1.37 million. It had been listed as being “affordable”, with the marketing emphasizing: “Urgent sale required!” Buyers were encouraged to ignore the CV of $1.75m, while OneRoof records show that it last changed hands in 2015 for just $1m.
3/227 Meola Road, a four-bedroom family home in Pt Chevalier, passed in after bids reached $1.315m, and is back on the market by way of price by negotiation.
Over at Bayleys, lead auctioneer Conor Patton, said there were only two auctions in Auckland this week and while both were passed in, neither property was affected by the floods. In fact, the flooding had very little impact on the agency’s auctions last week, which had been quiet week in the agency’s books anyway.
3/227 Meola Road, in Pt Chevalier, Auckland, is still on the market for sale after passing in at auction. Photo / Supplied
Harcourts’ national auction manager Shane Cortese said the floods pushed back some campaigns but he wasn’t worried. “It’s about what’s best for both seller and buyer and it's been hard to get out and about. It’s been hard to get into these properties, you are seeing the properties at their worst so it's only going to get better from that.”
He said he had a good result with a new build at 6 Kerr Crescent in Patumahoe, Franklin, where a pre-auction offer of $1.65m brought the property forward and won the day.
“They just broke out into this massive yell of joy and everyone was really happy,” he said.
“It just goes to show me that if you're in a position to bid unconditionally at the moment you're seeing first and foremost owners more adjustable or more likely to meet the market because of that certainty of cash.
“There are exceptions but the currency of this year is going to be certainty and especially with a market that is moving every month with interest rate increases.”
Ray White Remuera agent Suzanne Brown said the floods pushed back the auction for the coastal property in Bayswater she is selling. The property itself was unharmed by the storms but it does have better views now, with the heavy rains did bringing down a pohutukawa tree on the cliff edge.
The auction for this four-bedroom new-build property on Kerr Crescent, Patumahoe, Auckland, was brought forward. Photo / Supplied
Stunning views: A five-bedroom property at 57C & D Norwood Road, in Bayswater, Auckland, goes to auction on February 15. Photo / Supplied
She said the property on Norwood Road was “a paradise” with very deep piles. The owner, Raymond Dobbe, told OneRoof the rain “torrented down” the neighbour’s drive then went over the cliff and that led to the tree falling which has opened the view up.
“We lost a large pohutukawa which has given us an amazing unobstructed view of the city and the water, so there’s a silver lining.”
He said the house was set well back from the cliff and the foundations were built for the 100-year erosion plan, and he says geotechnical people have visited the property and have said there has been no movement.
Dobbe is selling because he is off to Blenheim as he has a new business project there, which could help the environment. “We do upcycling of waste organic product; we make a product called biochar,” he said.
“In Blenheim they have a whole heap of waste from the wine industry - there's a lot of waste which currently just rots so we're going to make that into like a fertilizer-type product and into an animal feed supplement which is for cows which reduces methane emissions.”
Dobbe said he has another business starting in the Waikato which will be using waste pine slash, saying the country has a lot of this around, such as on the East Coast which recently hit the headlines after Cyclone Hale.
