- A Grey Lynn home designed by Jack McKinney sold for $4.8m to expat Kiwis.
- The sale reflects demand for high-end, architecturally-designed homes in the area.
- Agents note high interest in both renovated and do-up properties, with buyers ignoring recent RV drops.
A striking concrete and glass home in Auckland’s Grey Lynn sold for $4.8 million earlier this year, OneRoof can reveal.
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The four-bedroom house, which was designed by award-winning architect Jack McKinney and has an RV of $3.65m, was bought by expat Kiwis after attracting the attention of high-profile film producers, among others.
Bayleys listing agent Cristina Casares told OneRoof that the sale price reflected the demand for high-end, finished homes in the inner-city suburb.
The 287sqm house on Schofield Street has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and two living rooms. Photo / Supplied
A neighbouring house designed by the same architect sold for $5.5m around the same time. Photo / Supplied
“We had 100 people inspect the home during the campaign. I targeted buyers who were into architecturally designed homes,” she said.
“High-profile people like film producers, buyers who are creative and successful and from all over – some even came from Queenstown.”
She said the buyers had been looking for an “architecturally solid” house and that the Schofield Street property ticked all the boxes.
“I don’t know how long my buyers had been looking, but a property like this does not come to the market very often. It ticked all the boxes, so they just went through it and went ‘yeah’. They bought it a couple of weeks after doing their builder’s report,” Casares said.
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The 287sqm house has three bathrooms, multiple living rooms, a double garage, and a swimming pool, all on a 535sqm section.
Another McKinney-designed home on the same street sold for $5.5m at auction around the same time.
Casares said that modern builds rarely came up for sale in Grey Lynn, and she had had several buyers with their own houses to sell who had missed out.
Ray White Grey Lynn owner Scott Withers noted there was strong demand for do-up properties, from developers and traders.
A deceased estate at 58 Albany Road is also attracting attention. Photo / Supplied
“Fully renovated homes are selling well in the $4m to $5m [price band],” he said, which in turn was bringing heat to unrenovated homes in the suburb, such as the four-bedroom deceased estate at 58 Albany Road he is taking to auction this week.
“I have not got a single person looking who is an owner-occupier, just renovator-developers,” he said. “That is a strong indication that there is some level of certainty in the market. These are not flippers, by any stretch of the imagination; they are professional high-end developers looking to build high-quality homes."
Wither said buyers in Grey Lynn were savvy enough not to pay attention to the recent drops in RVs. “In this marketplace, that’s not a conversation I’m having. Our buyers do not care.”
White Fox listing agent Ryan Teece agreed RVs were not a serious issue. “You get the odd buyer claiming that because CVs have come down, then the value has come down. But if people are seriously wanting to buy, that cannot be their mentality,” he said.
“If they do that, they are just going to keep missing out on good property. Serious buyers know their market.”
Teece said that there were still plenty of buyers looking – some who had been around the traps for nearly a year.
Good stock, he said, was pounced upon quickly. A smartly renovated three-bedroom house he is selling at 12 Sefton Avenue had over 40 groups through its first two weekends of open homes.
“When you take the apartments out of it, or the townhouses, there are not a lot of houses around in Grey Lynn. It is amazing how many people have $2m to $2.5m to spend, and anything below $1.5m is flying at the moment.”
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