Extreme makeover pays off
A Dunedin home has fetched almost $500,000 more than when the deceased estate sold five months earlier.
‘‘There is no price to deter, dream big and secure a premium opportunity,’’ the Harcourts real estate blurb said of the brick and tile three bedroom home, which sold by tender for $290,000 in May.
The extensively developed house then sold for $786,000 in October.
Homes.co.nz data values the properties either side of the Belleknowes home at $480,000 and
$520,000, while those on the hillside directly behind are valued at
$1 million, $945,000 and $720,000. The home was owned by late Otago Daily Times sport reporter Alistair McMurran, who had lived in the home as a child.
McMurran, 80, died after collapsing while walking a track at Mt Cook in November, 2017.
‘‘He hadn’t done much to the house,’’ Ron McMurran said of his late brother, who had been sole occupant at the property for the past 20 years.
Their parents bought the new home when his younger brother was about six, with Alistair McMurran living at the property the rest of his life.
Ron McMurran, one of the beneficiaries of the estate along with his sister, said he would not have been surprised if the home sold for less than the capital valuation – $290,000 – due to the condition of the home.
‘‘The house wasn’t in particularly good order [and] there was a lot of work to do. The kitchen was rubbish and the bathroom wasn’t very good.’’
The estate’s lawyer arranged the sale of the property after a tender process with Harcourts, which marketed the redeveloped property last month.
Eight offers were received, and a cash offer of $290,000 was accepted, McMurran said.
When told the redeveloped property fetched a price of $786,000 last month, he replied ‘‘you’re joking’’.
He saw a recent online listing of the property and said the home had been extensively refurbished.
‘‘They must have spent quite a lot.’’
The agent who sold the property, Kay Lucas, said she was given the listing and the property was presented well.
She declined to comment on the specifics of the sale because it was yet to be settled.
The listing noted the home had new wiring, new plumbing, new insulation, double glazing, new wall lining, kitchen and bathroom.
‘‘This is like a new house, so you can be first to live in and enjoy. It is outstandingly renovated and presented,’’ the agent said.
Harcourts Dunedin sales manager Richard Stringer said the home was effectively a new build, and there was a shortage of those type of properties on the market.
The property was redeveloped by a couple – a builder and mortgage broker – who did not return calls.
Stringer declined permission for The Press to publish Harcourts’ before and after photographs, and said that the instruction came from the vendor.
According to Quotable Value, the average value of a property in Dunedin central/north in September was $441,992, compared to $398,393 the year before.
Capital valuations across Dunedin showed the median sale price increased by 26 per cent since July, 2016.