‘Psychologically the pandemic is pushing people to go a little further’
A modest bungalow has sold for $500,000 more than its registered value, but that’s not unusual in the current Auckland property market.
The house, on Peary Rd in Mount Eden, fetched $1.9 million at the auction block on Thursday, despite having a CV of just $1.4m.
Ray White’s Rick Mozessohn says people are looking for the stability that comes with owning a property as their lives are uprooted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘‘I think people are prepared to pay abnormally high amounts, and if they hold on for long enough it’s all going to wash in with the increase in value anyway,’’ he said.
Median prices in Auckland were up 12.6 per cent year-onyear in September to a record $955,000, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ).
Mozessohn said the Covid-19 pandemic had made people realise how quickly their lives could change.
‘‘A lot of the things that you considered highly stable are no longer that way, and now people are really wanting to stabilise by investing in solid asset classes like property. Psychologically it’s pushing people to go a little further perhaps than they initially would’ve (gone).’’
The three-bedroom home was visited by 35 groups on its opening weekend – double the average attendance according to Mozessohn – and secured through a pre-auction offer after just two days on the market.
Last month banks loaned an all-time record of more than $7.3 billion to house buyers.