An Auckland couple who sold their home for $1.88 million this week could be heard celebrating throughout the night, according to neighbours who contacted Ray White agent Jay Singh the next morning.
The three-bedroom lifestyle house on West Road, in Brookby, was one of 116 properties auctioned by Ray White at two mega-events held on Wednesday in Auckland.
The sale price of $1.88m was the highest achieved of all the homes for sale, and it was $315,000 above its 2021 CV.
“It blew the owners’ dream price out of the water. They were flabbergasted,” Singh said.
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More than 60 groups inspected the 8588sqm lifestyle property over the holiday period, but feedback on price was around the $1.4m-$1.5m mark, with Singh noting that sales in the area were generally 18% below CV.
The vendors, who had bought the plot in 2018 for $1m, did not have high expectations the night before the auction. But that all changed as the bids started flying.
Eight buyers had registered for the auction (higher than usual for a lifestyle property in the area, said Singh) and while the auction itself only lasted two minutes, the competition was fierce.
“What’s interesting is that seven people missed out on buying, and that’s seven who really want to buy in that area,” said Singh. “Brookby’s not a huge area.”
Singh said the result was one worth celebrating. “According to one neighbour I was talking with the next day, the vendors were partying all night and the celebrations might have still been going on in the morning.”
The lifestyle property on West Road fetched $315,000 above its CV, exceeding the vendors' expectations. Photo / Supplied
The agent has been inundated with calls from other lifestyle property owners in the area, with word of the West Road sale spreading fast. “There has been a mixture of past clients, potential future clients who have called us as well, and asked us how the property achieved such a price. I think it is likely that we will see other properties coming to market in the area based off that sale.”
The property consisted of a 1930s-style modernised bungalow, two separate garages, and extensive parking. The larger of the two garages measured 16.7m x 12m at ground level with a 5.8m x 6.1m loft. The smaller garage has a separate sitting room and office. The main home has three bedrooms, and an open plan kitchen/dining/living room.
Ray White’s head auctioneer Sam Steele said the West Road sale was one of the standouts at the agency’s mega-auction day. More than 50 properties sold under the hammer in Manukau and Albany for a combined $56m.
“The big events were incredibly successful for a number of reasons,” said Steele. “The first is all of our owners who took their property to auction were trying essentially to beat the market. We always see a large influx of stock come on in February and March. This year especially, we are expecting those bookings to be even more significant. So it was an opportunity for all those owners to get their properties sold before there’s more competition.”
Ray White auctioneer Ben East takes bids at the agency's mega-auction event in Manukau. Photo / Supplied
The marketing campaign for the mega auctions was launched on Boxing Day, giving exposure when most potential buyers were on holiday and had time to browse. “The entire thought process behind it is just to ensure that as many buyers see those properties as humanly possible and doing everything in our power to ensure the exposure is really high.
“I think it’s undoubtedly that we had more buyers on the collective properties that we had yesterday than if they had been just normal auction days.” The events impressed onlookers.
“One of the agents in Manukau yesterday was telling me that she has an owner who’s going to take her property to auction in about a month’s time. After coming to the event yesterday in the Manukau office, they’ve actually said, ‘This is so amazing, we want to make sure that we are included in your next auction event’. So they’re actually changing their plans to ensure that they can be incorporated in it next time.”
The auction room was packed with bidders at Ray White's Manukau office. Photo / Supplied
Steele said that one noticeable difference between regular auction events and these mega auctions was that there were property traders and investors in the audience who bid on as many as 20 auctions. “From the owner’s point of view, the advantage to them is that we’ve got hundreds and hundreds of registered buyers in one room at the same time. We had people yesterday who bid on 15 to 20 properties,” said Steele.
The number of properties on offer helped investors, who could move onto the next property on their shortlist if they didn’t win the previous auction. “It’s something where if those options were weeks and weeks apart, those owners wouldn’t have had the same chance.”
Even properties at the very end of the auction lists benefited from the phenomenon, said Steele. “We actually had this exact scenario yesterday, for one of the last properties [at Manukau]. We had a collection of first-home buyers, but also investors who were bidding on that property.
“They were ones who had missed out on a couple of other [homes] during the day. We ended up getting an absolutely amazing result because those people just wanted to secure something before they missed out.”
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