- A renovated former chapel in Riwaka has sold after attracting six offers.
- An Auckland couple paid $704,000, or $55,000 above the asking price, for the two-bedroom home.
- The sale came during an unusually busy winter for the local housing market.
A Tasman couple are still in shock over the quick sale of their cute chapel home, telling OneRoof they were inundated with offers within days of listing the property.
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Paul and Julie Greenway said they accepted an offer for the two-bedroom house on Riwaka’s main street eight days after they got the agents in for an appraisal.
The former alpaca farmers had been keen to move quickly, but even they were surprised at the speed of the sale.
K Real Estate agent Rebecca K said the Greenways were “absolutely blown away”.
“I think they were really shocked by the whole process because they literally got us in on a Wednesday. We did an appraisal, they liked what we said, and they said, ‘We want to move now, how fast can you make this?’.”
The 1920s chapel conversion has been cleverly renovated to include a modern kitchen and bathroom. Photo / Supplied
Original features include native timber such as matai floorboards and rimu beams. Photo / Supplied
The vendors found an original hymn board, which had been rescued from a church damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes, after a long search. Photo / Supplied
The in-house photographer arrived within a couple of hours to take photos, and two days later, on the last Friday in July, the listing went live.
The former Brethren chapel, which was converted into a residence in the 1980s, was an instant hit with a wide range of buyers. The Greenways had six offers to choose from, including one for $704,000, which they accepted.
Rebecca told OneRoof: “This one knocked it out of the park. We were getting such a mixture of people coming through who were willing to put pen to paper.”
The buyers were an Auckland couple who paid $55,000 over the asking price.
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Rebecca said the quality and beauty of the renovation the Greenways had carried out helped seal the deal.
“Everybody just fell in love with [the house]. It had a lovely homely feel to it; it was something out of a magazine is how I would describe it.”
The Greenways told OneRoof last month that they had been running an alpaca farm in the Moutere Valley when they bought the property.
They ran it as a holiday let at first and then moved there permanently after selling their farm last year. They only decided to sell to move closer to their family.
Inviting offers over $529,000 is a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home at 707 Main Road, in Riwaka. Photo / Supplied
Rebecca said the housing market had been unusually busy during winter. She put it down to people putting off buying and selling decisions from earlier in the year. “We did have a surprising flurry in June, which flowed on into July, which was great for us, but we had a phenomenal month in July.”
“This is me in [my] 19th year of real estate, and this would have been one of our busiest winters.”
Entry-level house prices for Motueka and nearby Riwaka start at around $500,000 for a two-bedroom property, with $700,000 considered at the upper end of buyer budgets.
Rebecca has a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home on an 812sqm section for sale at 707 Main Road, which is inviting offers over $529,000, and one of her colleagues has a three-bedroom property on a 1651sqm site at 74 King Edward Street, in Motueka, for sale for $699,000-plus.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Tasman
