Property buyers honed in on Mt Wellington this week as two pairs of neighbouring properties were snapped up for big sums.
On Tuesday, two brick and tiles homes at 83 and 85 Cascades Road sold under the hammer for $3.2 million at Barfoot and Thompson’s auction house.
Less than 24 hours later, two similar looking properties at nearby 42 and 44 Waipuna Road sold for the same amount.
The properties had been pitched as development opportunities, with both listings highlighting their favourable zoning under the Unitary Plan.
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83 and 85 Cascades Road were marketed together. With 2017 rating valuations of $940,000 and $1.035 million respectively, the properties got a starting bid of $2.5million.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Helen Han, who marketed the properties, says there were two active bidders in the room driving the price to $3.2 million, with an Auckland developer securing the pair.
Barfoot and Thompson agents Jane Wang and Dragon Zhou, who marketed the Waipuna Road properties, say they sit on developer-friendly sections in a popular location.
Wang, who positioned them as an opportunity for investors and land bankers, says the four active bidders in the room were all developers.
She had been approached first to sell 44 Waipuna Road but suggested that the owner could help convince the next-door neighbours to sell their sites together - and the collaboration paid off.
“Two sections are easier to sell to a developer as it’s really hard to build terrace houses on 700sq m section. On the 1400sq m section you can fit more houses and that’s the whole point.
“If they sell separately, they get less,” Wang says.
42 and 44 Waipuna Road were listed together and snapped up by a developer for $3.2million on Wednesday, Photo/ Supplied.
Wang claims the sale is the new record for the Mount Wellington street, at a price of $2200 per square meter for a mixed housing suburban zoning.
“Both vendors are happy, it was a wonderful auction,” she says.
Another single Mount Wellington property, which was not listed with a neighbour, was sold to a developer for $1.25 million under the hammer today, $530,000 above CV.
Wang, who marketed the house at 336 Panama Road property with a CV of $720,000, says investors and developers were competing, with bids starting at $1million.
The three-bedroom and one-bathroom house, located on a 675sq m section in a mixed housing suburban zone is on the waterfront, which makes it attractive for developers, despite its smaller size.
Barfoot & Thompson Remuera branch manager Carolyn Vernon says neighbouring properties with development potential aren’t always targeted at investors.
Her colleagues Di Martens, Gill Macdonald and Sara-Jayne Kingston are bringing neighbouring properties on 20 and 22 Stewart Avenue , Panmure to auction on December 22.
The two 1950s three-bedroom brick and tile homes are sitting on 670 sq m and 741sq m sites zoned for terrace housing and apartments which has desirable potential for subdivision or high density housing.
However Vernon says: “Someone might like it as a development site and an opportunity for them but there are first home buyers looking at it too.”
