Blockhouse Bay home fetches 73 per cent above valuation, leaves shocked vendor 'in tears'

A Blockhouse Bay home on a big site went for 73 per cent above its registered valuation, leaving the vendor in tears of joy yesterday, an agent said.

Kevin He of Barfoot & Thompson said the property at 5 Matata St was valued at $1.9m but a pre-auction offer of $2.03m brought the auction forward to 2.45pm yesterday.

Even with an offer of $2.03m in the bag, the vendor was extremely happy, He said: "That then became the vendor's reserve".

Eleven people had registered for the auction yesterday afternoon and each of them had an agent on the phone, taking their bids before auctioneer Marian Tolich, He said.

"There were five strong bidders, all locals," He said, adding that none of the bidders were foreigners based overseas. Calls came thick and fast to the point where they reached $3.385m and the hammer fell.

"Nobody thought it would go that far. The vendor was in tears. She couldn't believe it happened. He's very happy. She's blown away," He said.

One of the larger sites in the street. Photo / Barfoot & Thompson

The Unitary Plan zones the 2428sq m property as residential mixed housing suburban and the successful buyer is understood to be planning to build on the land.

"Developers are not stupid. They know what they're doing and there were a number of people competing. It looks like it will be developed," He said.

Asked how many homes could be built there, he said: "It all comes down to design but probably over 10 [residences]," he said.

The Unitary Plan says mixed housing suburban is the most widespread residential zone covering many established suburbs and some greenfields areas.

"Much of the existing development in the zone is characterised by one or two-storey, mainly stand- alone buildings, set back from site boundaries with landscaped gardens," the plan says.

The zone enables intensification.

Inside the home on its huge site. Photo / Barfoot & Thompson

The home at 5 Matata St is four-bedroom, has a carport, a family room and two bathrooms.

Other homes have fetched high prices lately too. For example, the sale 99 Clarence St in Ponsonby resulted in two Kiwis in Singapore bidding against each other. It sold earlier this month for $2.31m.

The Real Estate Institute said Auckland median sale prices fell marginally in the past month but the national median prices rose 3.4 per cent during the same period.

Although Auckland's median sale price dropped from June's $921,000 to $920,000 in July, nationally prices rose from $638,000 to $660,000.

Annually, national median prices rose 15 per cent from $575,000 last July to $660,000 last month.

Sales volumes rose 24 per cent from 6303 to 7854, which REINZ said was the highest in a July month for five years.

For New Zealand, excluding Auckland, the number of properties sold increased by 21.5 per cent from 4328 to 5258 from last July to last month.

REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said on August 14: "Even though anecdotally we've had a great start to August, the real question now is how long this can be sustained for, particularly now Auckland has gone back into alert level 3."