- Eighteen bidders competed for a three-bedroom townhouse on Homai Street, Remuera, despite a cooling market.
- The property sold for $2.11m, $85,000 above its rateable value, to a young family.
- Bayleys agent Steve Koerber noted buyers saw renovation potential, with bids exceeding $2m.
It could have been an auction room scene from five years ago – 18 bidders competing to buy a three-bedroom townhouse.
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But the sale of a 1970s duplex on Homai Street, in Auckland’s Remuera, took place, not at the height of the market, but in the midst of a cooling one.
Bayleys listing agent Steve Koerber, who marketed the property with colleague Chester Duffett, told OneRoof that the turnout at last week’s auction took them by surprise.
He said that buyers would have looked at the decor and figured that they could get the house for much less than its RV of $2.025m. Initial interest before marketing began had been around $1.7m.
Fortunately, once the agents started showing it properly, the crowds turned up, with nearly 60 groups viewing the property over three weekends of open homes.
The townhouse on Homai Street, one of a block of four, sat on a roomy, flat corner section. Photo / Supplied
By that point, the owners felt confident enough to turn down a pre-auction offer.
“It started to build up about four days before the auction. We had 16 registered, and then two came into the auction room five minutes before it started,” Koerber said.
“We had eight people bidding, and in the final stretch, there were three fairly keen over the $2m mark.”
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The hammer finally came down at $2.11m – $85,000 more than the property’s RV – with the winning bid from a young family who had just sold their own home some weeks earlier.
The Homai Street house was on a freehold corner site in a block of four. Koerber said buyers saw room to put in a pool and landscape the existing 389sqm site, currently covered in gravel.
The kitchen still had its original mosaic tiles and groovy wallpaper, and the two bathrooms were untouched, but the property had three good-sized bedrooms, an internal double garage, an office and roomy patios.
Buyers were expecting to fully renovate the property. Photo / Supplied
The large garden, largely covered in gravel, had potential for a pool and landscaping. Photo / Supplied
Koerber said buyers at this level could comfortably spend $300,000 to $500,000 on a renovation. “The ones who had a bit more confidence about their abilities to renovate and control the costs, they’re the ones who were bidding higher,” he said.
He added: “Two million dollars, freehold land, flat land, its own street frontage: it is incredibly difficult to find that in Remuera.”
Earlier this year, Koerber and Duffett sold another home in the same block for $1.565m. That home was smaller, and didn’t have a functioning bathroom. The agents set a declared reserve of $1.499m, considerably below the RV of $1.725m, which brought out four bidders.
“The declared reserve was effective. But this was not the same target as last week’s house, so there was a substantial difference in price,” Koerber said.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Remuera
