Eleven bidders placed 416 bids at an auction this week as they chased an immaculately renovated five-bedroom bungalow in Auckland’s Greenlane, before the hammer came down at just under $4 million.
They were particularly keen on the recently-built one-bedroom apartment on the garage of the 1920s house on Adam Street, just three minutes’ walk from the train station.
Barfoot & Thompson auctioneer Murray Smith, who called the auction, said that while it was not the 90-minute marathon of another Epsom sale that day, the 416 bids were fast and furious, albeit in tiny increments. The final price of $3.971m was just $1000 above the under-bidder’s try.
“This is new. It’s like the buyers are learning the new prices and having to inch their way there. Like they’re saying ‘I don’t want to pay too much’. No one wants to overpay, so they’re scared to make those big bids that would knock out everyone else, so up it goes $1000, $1000, another $1000.
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“It gives buyers an acceptance and understanding that the price they paid is the correct price.”
Buyers were particularly keen on the legal, one-bedroom apartment on the Adam Street, Greenlane, Auckland property. Photo / Supplied
Di Martens, the Barfoot & Thompson agent who marketed the property for the first time in 27 years, said multiple pre-auction offers within the first week assured the vendors that the house would do well at auction.
“It was on the market at $3.4m but a lot of real money stayed in until $3.6m and there were two bidders going right to $3.97m. We knew it would be really popular because it had the brand-new granny flat, fully legal and self-contained.
“One of the bidders had not seen inside, and she still bid up to around $3.7m before dropping out.”
Martens said that the price was a street record, almost $1.5m more than a similar property on the street sold for two years ago.
The house, which has a CV of $1.7m and last changed hands for $330,000, had been staged the day before Auckland’s lockdown, but not photographed until level 3, so Martens scheduled back-to-back in person viewings.
First-home buyers paid $2.35m for a heritage concrete home on Eldon Road, Mount Eden. Photo / Supplied
“Demand is there, I could sell the whole street. There are now 10 people who missed out who are still looking.”
Another rare home on Eldon Road, Mount Eden, one of a handful of heritage-protected 1930s concrete homes built as show homes by Winstones, also drew big interest. Seven bidders pushed well past the pre-auction offer of $1.85m to a final price of $2.35m, $850,000 over its ratings valuation and nearly $1m more than the $1.5m paid for it six years ago.
But just two years ago when Barfoot & Thompson agent Simon Lu tried marketing the property, he couldn’t get any interest at $1.6m.
This time, marketing with Hannah Wang, Lu said that interest was huge, despite developers excluded by the house’s heritage overlay.
A do-up bungalow on Selwyn Road, Epsom, in the double grammar zone sold for $2.107m. Photo / Supplied
“These were all first-home buyers. We had the pre-auction offer by the second day, so the owners were really happy, but we said to wait a few days. Now I’ve already had calls from a few neighbours thinking about selling.”
Barfoot & Thompson’s Yasu Ka, who marketed a three-bedroom bungalow on Selwyn Road, Epsom with Stephen Shin that sold at auction for $2.107m, said that vendors had accepted a pre-auction offer of just under $1.8m. The double-grammar zone house, on the market for the first time in 25 years, was billed as a do-up.
“But the six bidders just kept bidding. There’s a shortage of stock and people can’t find similar in that price range. This is entry level for grammar now.”
A stylish 1940s bungalow on Umere Crescent, Ellerslie sold for $2.575m. Photo / Supplied
Another stylish 1940s bungalow on Umere Crescent, Ellerslie, fetched $2.575m after three bidders fought.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Steve Hood, who marketed the property, said buyers ignored the ratings valuation of $1.36m, as it didn’t take into account the immaculate renovation and architect-designed landscaping. The three-bedroom house sold to locals downsizing in the neighbourhood.
Even in non-grammar suburbs, demand is high for character homes. A fresh and tidy three-bedroom bungalow in Auckland's west, at Rata Street in New Lynn, had an offer only three days after going on the market and five bidders who drove the price to $1.29m, said Barfoot & Thompson agent Ellie Wang.
A bungalow on Rata Street, New Lynn, sold for $1.29m. Photo / Supplied
“This is the first-home buyer market in New Lynn now. It sold three years ago for $898,000, but we’ve had nothing under $1m for the past five or six months.”
Buyers paid $2.675m for a villa in Grey Lynn's Williamson Avenue. Photo / Supplied
Across in Grey Lynn, Bayleys agent Blair Haddow marketed a tidy four-bedroom villa on Williamson Avenue that sold under the hammer for $2.675m after only a week on the market.
“That was well above appraisal, none of us expected that. I’d sold a neighbouring investment property of two flats last year for $2.9m. Buyers are coming from all over Auckland, they all want to move here.
“Twelve years ago, you’d get really nice villas for $700,000 but now there just isn’t enough stock. I could sell twice what we’ve got, easily.”
