- A dilapidated villa near Dress Smart sold for $1.2 million, up from $992,000 in July.
- The auction saw two buyers compete, starting at $1 million and concluding at $1.2 million.
- The property's zoning and flood zone status caused confusion, but interest remained high.
Discount shopping is alive and well inside Auckland’s Dress Smart, but outside prices are climbing, not falling.
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Just two months after he bought a dilapidated green villa next to the Onehunga shopping mall for $992,000, a land banker resold it at auction for $1.2 million.
Dress Smart shoppers will be familiar with the two-bedroom Church Street property, which is surrounded by high concrete walls and resembles the house in the blockbuster Pixar movie Up.
The house was too big a project for renovators. Photo / Supplied
Two buyers went head-to-head for the property at Bayleys' auction on Wednesday. The clash was a short one. The auction started at $1m and then paused for negotiation at $1.1m before the property was brought back to the floor at $1.2m and sold.
Bayleys listing agent Jock Kooger told OneRoof the sale was unusual. He did not know who the bidders were or what the new owner planned to do with the villa.
He said the property had attracted a lot of interest during the two-week campaign from opportunists and renovators hoping to grab a bargain, to buyers looking to run a business from the site.
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“There were a lot of people saying it was a really cool site, but the villa was far too much work for a lot of people.”
The vendor bought the property in July and had only just taken possession at the end of last month. He told OneRoof ahead of this week's auction that he was selling it much earlier than planned because of “unexpected personal commitments”.
“I purchased this property because I could see its potential and the value of such a great section,” he said.
The Church Street villa is the last remaining house in what is now a commercial area. Photo / Supplied
“I’ll unfortunately have to leave this fantastic opportunity for the next owner to make the most of the property’s potential.”
The business town centre zone restricted the height of any new building on the 594sqm site to 27m, which ruled out apartment towers or large office blocks. The property was also in a flood zone.
Kooger said the zoning caused some confusion. A nearby company wanted to buy it, but was unable to obtain clarification on whether it could run its business from the site.
Some buyers thought the price would be lower because the property was being resold quickly, but in the end, the market dictated the price, Kooger said.
The agent said the vendor was pleased with the price he got.
“He ultimately wanted to hold the place. He didn’t want to sell it.” he said. “He’s sad to see it go, but it is what it is.”
The property first hit the market at the start of the year as an estate sale following the death of the previous owner, Joy McHardie. She had held onto the villa for 60 years and had seen in recent decades the rise of commercial buildings, including Dress Smart’s carpark, around it.
OneRoof previously reported that McHardie had rebuffed multiple offers from developers for at least 30 years. She moved to the villa at 118 Church Street with her family in the 1950s and watched as the old cottages around her were removed one by one as the strip was rezoned for commercial buildings.
The arrival of Dress Smart in 1995 saw her home overshadowed by the mall’s parking zone, but she clung on until moving into a rest home in 2016. Her family eventually decided to sell the house this year.
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