Chelsea Winter’s fairy-tale home price slashed again, now under $2m

The Crawford Rd in Te Puna, Western Bay of Plenty, home of celebrity chef Chelsea Winter now has an asking price of $2.25 million - a reduction of $240,000 since October. Photo / Supplied

Celebrity chef Chelsea Winter’s Te Puna property has been slashed in price for a second time in less than a month and is now priced at $1.998 million - $492,000 less than the original asking price in October.

The second price reduction for the lifestyle property at 177C Crawford Rd comes as Bay of Plenty agents say asking prices have been dropping as sellers adjust their expectations in order to get their houses sold.

In the Bay of Plenty, 696 properties listed on OneRoof had a price change between October and December compared to just 115 for the same three-month period in 2021. The 505 per cent increase in the number of listings that were price-altered is the second largest after the Waikato which saw a 621 per cent increase in the number of listings changed, OneRoof data shows.

The dramatic drops on Winter’s family home appear to have enticed buyers with at least one offer expected on the property in the next few days. Winter’s “fairy-tale” Te Puna property was first listed in October for $2.49m before lowering to $2.25m in mid-December.

But when that price failed to get appropriate traction, just days before Christmas the price of the three-bedroom, two-bathroom lifestyle block was updated again with an advertised price of $1.998m.

Celebrity chef and best-selling author Chelsea Winter has listed her Te Puna lifestyle property for sale. Photo / Supplied

In December, Oliver Road agency told OneRoof it had reduced prices on a number of listed properties and that it was not unusual in a softening market for prices to get adjusted down over time.

Oliver Road managing director Cameron Winter said since the price of Olive Hill, the name of Chelsea Winter’s home, had dropped to $1.998m they had received a much better response which was similar to one they would expect for the property in any market.

Potential buyers from the Bay of Plenty as well as Waikato and Australia have viewed the property once, if not twice, in the last week and as a result, Winter expects at least one or more offers to be tabled in the next few days.

He said they were approaching the busiest time of the year for selling and asking prices for properties that were not experiencing the activity they should be at their advertised price could be reduced.

“We always have and always will remain committed to selling properties for what they’re worth and the pricing strategy of each will always depend on a lot of factors including the client’s motivation to sell along with where the property sits in context of comparable options for buyers and the general market sentiment.”

Because Oliver Road markets luxury properties, Winter said the price adjustments can seem quite dramatic when only considered from a dollar value perspective but percentage-wise were no different to those at lower levels.

“A $50K reduction from $500K is no different to a $300K reduction from $3,000,000.”

Powers Realty principal Sandra Power said they were also seeing price reductions, especially in the lower to mid-end of the market.

“Our lower to mid-end has definitely been affected and our vendors are typically needing to accept a lower price than what they might have a year ago.”

Power said it was really important the seller had a good agent who was in touch with what was happening in the market to prevent the property from languishing on the market and having a stigma attached to it.

“It’s really important they get the price right sooner rather than later if they want to sell so they don’t end up getting less than what they would have got.”

A 1970s brick and tile home on Oceanbeach Rd in Mount Maunganui that is being marketed by Ray White has also had a recent price change. It is now priced by negotiation from an asking price of more than $9.25m after it was passed in at auction in October last year.

Ray White Mount Maunganui and Papamoa business owner Greg Purcell said price reductions were happening, but not by “ridiculous amounts”.

“They’ve just come back a various per cent depending on what it is and where it is and that’s normal.”

Purcell said there were still plenty of buyers looking, but the property had to be priced well to sell because there was a lot to choose from.

“Everyone acts like they have a Plan B, but a lot of people’s Plan B is Plan A which is to sell for whatever reason. There isn’t really a feasible Plan B – they have to meet the market.

“It’s not the property. It’s the human being who owns the property and their expectation. Everything will sell – it’s just at what point is acceptable.”

However, Purcell added that often how much people drop the price by was irrelevant, especially if the original asking price was far too high in the first place.