- A South Auckland developer is auctioning a Papatoetoe apartment with a $1 reserve due to financial pressure.
- The developer hopes the auction will help set the reserve for two neighbouring properties also being sold.
- The properties, tenanted and returning $750 weekly, were originally listed for sale for $874,500 in 2022.
A struggling developer who has been trying to sell three apartments for almost four years has decided to risk letting one go for as little as $1.
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He is selling 4/7 Caspar Road, in Papatoetoe, at auction with an ultra-low reserve in an attempt to stand out in what is a crowded and sluggish apartment market.
The neighbouring three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments at 1/7 and 3/7 Caspar Road will also be auctioned off on the same day, and the result of the first $1 reserve auction will help determine their reserves.
Harcourts agent Harsh Kathuria said his client had been waiting for the market to pick up, but was now at “breaking point”.
“He’s in an extremely tight spot. They have to let one go regardless of the price,” Kathuria told OneRoof.
4/7 Caspar Road is one of three properties still looking for a new owner after being completed in 2022. Photo / Supplied
The high-spec apartment is being pitched at first-home buyers and investors. Photo / Supplied
The agent’s listing makes clear just how dire the situation is: “The [vendor is] under serious financial pressure. Lending has tightened, holding costs are mounting, and the bank is knocking on the door. There is no room to wait, no room to negotiate later – selling is the only option.”
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment has an RV of $790,000, but Kathuria said there was a good chance it could sell for less than that. “Someone is definitely going to walk away with a bargain,” he said.
The property was originally listed for sale in 2022 with an asking price of $874,500. It was relisted for sale in October last year with an asking price of $680,000.
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Kathuria said the $1 reserve was a strong sign that his client was ready to meet the market. “This one needs to go ASAP. I said [to the vendor] when do you want it sold, and their answer was yesterday.”
The “immaculate” home had “all the bells and whistles” and was the ideal property for a first-home buyer or an investor, the agent said. All three properties are currently tenanted, returning around $750 a week.
“It’s the perfect textbook home. It’s got electric gates, you’ve got security cameras, it’s in a great spot, big balcony – where else do you find that?”
Kathuria said there were a lot of new townhouses for sale in South Auckland, with developers looking to capitalise on the slight uptick in market activity at the end of 2025. However, few had three bedrooms and two bathrooms or had been built to such a high specification as his client’s.
The developer of One Greys Avenue overlooking Auckland’s Aotea Square is offering people two years mortgage-free in an attempt to lure buyers in. Photo / Supplied
A new two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment at 1402/1 Greys Avenue with an asking price of $1.165m is one of the properties in the complex still needing to be sold. Photo / Supplied
Meanwhile, central Auckland property investor and developer John Love still appears to be offering some inner-city apartments mortgage-free for two years to shift some of the last remaining properties in the former council headquarters.
The 114-apartment complex in Aotea Square known as One Greys Avenue was completed in 2023, but some apartments, including a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment for $1.165m and a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment for $1.34m, are still yet to sell.
The two-year suspended mortgage deal, which required buyers to pay a 10% deposit and agree to pay the full asking price, was originally due to expire before Christmas but is still being promoted on OneRoof.
Love had not responded to OneRoof queries by the time of publication but told the New Zealand Herald last month that the aim was to spark interest in a sluggish market.
In Wellington, a real estate agency’s marketing tactic to encourage people to attend open homes in the traditionally quieter post-Christmas period paid off.
Everyone who turned up to one of the 130 Lowe & Co open homes in Wellington City on Sunday was entered into a competition to win a Luxury Helicopter Lunch for two at Wharekauhau Country Estate. The more open homes they attended, the more entries they received.
Lowe & Co director Craig Lowe said it was a massive success with double the number of people turning up to the open homes for that time of year.
“We had one house that had 70 groups there so that would have been well over 100 people, and we had another one in Wadestown that had 66.”
Lowe said there was a perception that buyers went away on holiday, but often the reality was that it was the agent. He said the idea was to run a fun promotion to support vendors, while also taking advantage of having fewer houses to compete against.
Lowe was confident the promotion helped drum up interest because they had some people – including some serious buyers – visit a large number of their open homes on the day. The buyer who won the luxury prize was someone who attended a few and was even in the process of making an offer on one of them.
- 4/7 Caspar Road, in Papatoetoe, Auckland, is heading to auction on February 18 with a $1 reserve
