The Block NZ: Pt Chev prices ‘crazy’, Block house sells for $3.18m
The sale of a house that won second place in 2014 raises the stakes for this year's teams, writes CATHERINE SMITH
Athree-bedroom house from season three of The Block NZ sold under the hammer this week for $3.182 million, raising the stakes for the teams currently battling it out in this year’s show.
Bidding started at a high $2.9m – more than $1m above the property’s 2017 CV – with three buyers pushing hard to secure the Auckland house.
The winning bid was from a couple downsizing from a larger home in neighbouring Mt Eden. The couple, Julia and Rob, had made the pre-auction offer which brought the auction forward.
The listing agents said the auction had been brought forward after the vendors had accepted a pre-auction offer.
The house on Newell Street, in Point Chevalier, had sold for $1.47m at the end of the 2014 season of The Block NZ, delivering second-placed contestants Maree and James a profit of $147,000.
The $3.182m sale will be good news for this year’s Block NZ teams. Newell Street is just a 10-minute walk from the Huia Street houses they are currently finishing up.
In its eight seasons, no Block house has cracked the $2m mark during the televised auctions, but this season could change all that with the current crop of homes gearing up for a spring auction.
OneRoof’s latest house price figures show the market has been running hot in Point Chevalier.
The suburb’s median property value jumped more than 30% in the last 12 months to $2.02m, with no property in the suburb selling for less than $1m this year.
In 2014, the median property value of the suburb was just over $900,000, and the winning house sold for $1.552m – $227,000 above the reserve.
That home now has a OneRoof valuation of $2.39m and a 2017 CV of $1.825m.
The listing agents for the Newell Street home, the Professionals’ Lawrence and Derek von Sturmer, said the housing market in Point Chevalier was “crazy” right now.
The von Sturmers also sold two brand-new townhouses on Newell Street this week for $2.476m and $2.27m.
The buyers of the front townhouse, a four-bedroom home at 21A, were the lucky vendors of the Block house across the road.
The buyers of the threebedroom townhouse at 21C were one of the unlucky bidders at the auction for 21A.
About 70 people watched both auctions, with about six bidders for each townhouse.
”I think these have set a benchmark for The Block to beat,” Derek said.
The sale of the Newell Street homes comes a day after an apartment that featured on season eight of The Block NZ sold under the hammer for $2.1m. Bidding on the threebedroom ground floor home – one of five in a converted fire station in Auckland’s Kingsland – started at $1.7m and the property went on the market at $1.9m.
The apartment was owned by former Block producer and TV supremo Julie Christie, and the sale price delivered her a profit, on paper, of $620,000.
The house on Newell Street, in Point Chevalier, had sold for $1.47m at the end of the 2014 season of The Block NZ. The $3.182m sale will be good news for this year’s Block NZ teams.