- A one-bedroom unit in Whangamatā sold for $332,500, making it the cheapest property to sell in the town in at least five years.
- Amanda and Gary Millar sold the unit to unlock their retirement fund, allowing Gary to retire.
- Bayleys agents marketed it as one of Whangamatā's cheapest, generating significant interest and a successful sale.
A one-bedroom beach unit has broken Whangamatā price records; it's the cheapest property to sell in the town in years.
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Whangamatā may be the Coromandel’s priciest town, where beachfront homes regularly fetch more than $5 million, but pockets of affordability remain. A modest unit several blocks from the shore has been sold for $332,500, proving there are still bargains to be found.
The unit in the Paradise Coast apartment block had been looking for a buyer without much luck for the last three years, so vendors Amanda and Gary Millar decided it was time to meet the market.
They bought the unit in the Paradise Coast Apartment complex for $230,000 in 2018 after making a profit on another property.
Her handy husband did it up as their lock-and-leave beach retreat, but when they later moved to the town permanently after finding their dream townhouse (a journey that was documented on the TVNZ property show Find My Country House New Zealand with host Matt Gibbs), the unit became surplus to requirements.
The unit was in a former motel complex with access to a swimming pool and shared laundry. Photo / Supplied
They enlisted the help of Bayleys agents Dale Sholson and Gordon McGregor earlier this year and took the property to auction. The listing made it clear that the vendors were motivated and that buyers should ignore the RV of $460,000.
The property passed in at auction after one cheeky bid of $160,000. However, a Morrinsville man looking for an investment property he could rent out long-term almost immediately stepped in, and the property was under contract 48 hours later.
The $332,500 sale price was just below the town's previous record - $334,500 for a property in The Square in May 2021.
Amanda told OneRoof they knew prices had dropped since the post-Covid peak and were prepared to meet the market. “We had been trying on and off for three years, and the one [unit] above us had been on the market for more than three years. We didn’t lose on it – we sold it for over $100,000 more than we paid for it, and others are not going to have that success.”
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Gary was “really happy” he could finally retire, she said. “We can now move on, put our feet up and just live the retirement we planned for.”
Sholson confirmed it was one of the cheapest sales in the town for a long time. Another property in the same complex also sold this month for a slightly higher price.
He said the affordable price point had helped generate a lot of interest from people looking for a cheap investment or holiday home. “Because it was at the affordable end of the market, there were lots of enquiries in general, lots of viewings.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Whangamatā
