A three-bedroom South Auckland home that hit the market last Friday with an asking price of $799,000 has had 17 offers on it already, as buyers scramble to secure property in the city’s heated housing market.
READ MORE: Find out if your suburb is rising or falling
The smartly presented house at 6 Wood Avenue, in Mangere East, sits on a 1009sqm section and had attracted a huge amount of interest, listing agent Pat Lapalapa told OneRoof.
The Ray White Manukau agent said he had expected his first weekend back after the Christmas break to be “cruisey”, assuming most buyers would be in holiday mode, but it “ended up being crazy busy”.
Start your property search
He said the market didn’t pick up until mid-February last year but high buyer demand from December has spilled over into January.
Lapalapa recommended an early campaign to the owners of 6 Wood Avenue and the gambit has paid off.
The Mangere East home has three bedrooms and a freshly renovated bathroom. Photo/ Supplied.
"This is not your average market so I said let's try to make a move, list earlier and it worked for them," he said.
He said he showed 50 groups through at the weekend, and of the 17 offers he has received 12 are above the asking price.
"We have had a lot of cash offers and some a fair bit over the asking price, about $50,000-plus," he said.
Lapalapa said about half of the offers had come from investors, who are looking for opportunities to invest before their pre-approval expires and a possible 40 percent deposit requirement comes into play in March.
Bayleys OneTree Hill owner Glenn Baker said he too had noticed the market had kicked off a lot earlier than usual for Auckland, which in years past has been a real estate dead zone until February.
Baker said he had enquiries for viewings on a listing that he hadn’t even brought to market yet.
“A lot of people who ran out of time and were too rushed on Christmas are now coming in,” he said.
