Five bidders drive price of Coromandel bach north of $4m
Buyers hunting for beach-side properties broke another record in a Coromandel beach town this week. Five bidders pushed the price of a four-bedroom renovated bach at 5 Ayr Street, in Waihi, to above $4 million.
“The property passed in at $4 million, then sold for an undisclosed figure above that,” said Professionals NRG Realty sales manager and auctioneer Paul Billinghurst.
“Bidding started at $2.5 million and pretty much went up in $100,000 lots with a couple of $50,000 [bids] in there. The top bid was $3.9 million, which was raised to $4 million. Post-auction negotiations with the top bidder resulted in a sale that day.”
Listing agent Di Masters, who marketed the property with colleague Sandra Hurley, said that the sale price broke the previous Waihi Beach record, set in February, of $3.205 million for 15 Seaforth Road, a classic 1950s bach on 809sqm of beachfront land.
“We marketed Ayr Street for three weekends, including Easter, and had 115 groups through, from Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga. That’s truckloads for here - we usually get 30 or 40. There were five bidders, two of them by phone – including the successful buyer. “It’s the highest price by over $1 million. The owner and the rest of the street expected that but we were amazed. I’ve now got four people looking for a beachfront property with $3 to $4 million budgets.
“The property was on one of the streets everybody wants because it’s near the surf club, the café and village.”
The property, which last sold five years ago for $1.9 million, had been fully refurbished.
Masters told Oneroof that there was huge demand for beachfront properties but listings were short on the ground.
“Buyers in Waihi Beach do the shuffle – they get their foot in the door, then want to get closer to the beach or a sea view. A classic Kiwi bach might go for early $3 millions now.”
The sale follows several big transactions at other popular beach towns in the Coromandel. In Whangamata, the next big beach up, a 1970s bach at 202 Pipi Road, Whangamata sold for $5 million while in Whitianga, an architectdesigned four-bedroom house on a 940sqm section over the road from the beach at 37 Buffalo Beach Road sold for $3 million.