$4m sales show market still buoyant
A heritage villa in Auckland’s most expensive suburb and an awardwinning house in the city’s east both sold at auction for more than $4 million in a sign that buyers are still prepared to spend big on real estate despite the uncertainty of Covid-19.
The highest sale price at Bayleys’ auction room yesterday was $4.32m for a five-bedroom country estatestyle house at 249 Point View Drive, in Dannemora. The property, which won the 2015 Auckland Registered Master Builders House of the Year Award, soared past its 2017 rating valuation of $2.175m as three groups of bidders fought to secure it.
Bayleys agent Michael Chi, who marketed the property with colleague Angela Rudling, said he was not surprised by the final result as the house was “one of a kind”.
“It’s an award-winning design and it’s a very rare property in terms of structure and the buyer was very appreciative of that,” he said.
Earlier at Bayleys’ auctions, a wellpresented four-bedroom home at 48 Ardmore Rd, in Herne Bay, sold to an Auckland buyer for $4.05m — $1.35m above its 2017 rating valuation — after strong bidding from four parties. The home was sold by Auckland artist Britt Alpe and marketed for sale by Bayleys agent Edward Pack.
According to data from NZMEowned listing site OneRoof.co.nz, the property last sold in July 2009 for $1.15m, delivering Alpe a profit, on paper at least, of $2.9m.
Owen Vaughan, editor of OneRoof, said: “If Auckland auction prices are telling us anything about the state of the real estate market post-lockdown, it’s that there are buyers who are willing to stretch themselves — but only for the right home.”