Auckland property has $1 reserve

Vendor Jared Hards with agent Jared Cooksley at the cottage. Photo / Jason Dorday

Agent puts faith in auction process to sell his own updated cottage.

An Auckland real estate agent is taking a leap of faith in the hot property market - by auctioning his own property for a $1 reserve.

Ray White agent Jared Hards and wife Ashlea have put their 1950s railway cottage in the Auckland suburb of Otahuhu on the market with the minimum reserve price.

Hards said he was always suggesting to vendors that they put their homes to auction so it was a great opportunity to show his faith in the process. "It's my way of putting my money where my mouth is," he said. "I trust the auction process and I trust our agent so I know it is not going to sell for just a dollar."

Fellow agent Jared Cooksley is marketing the renovated Queen St cottage on a 281sq m freehold section. The house, with a CV of $290,000, has two bedrooms and an office, storage and is close to shops and transport.

Cooksley said the $1 reserve was risky but also a good opportunity to grab attention in the fast-growing suburb of Otahuhu.

"It has worked so far with a lot of phone calls and around 20 through the open home on the first day," Cooksley said. "It is a good house so we have been able to have a bit of fun with it," he said.

Figures from QV show Otahuhu had one of the fastest-rising house values in Auckland.

Bruce Wiggins from QV said growth was high because it had good transport links with the city and was "the next one along the motorway" from the neighbouring high-performing Mt Wellington.

Auckland properties sold by the city's biggest agency, Barfoot & Thompson, hit a new high of $756,909 this week. Wiggins described the rise in values as "eyewatering". Some areas were up 5 per cent in only three months. Nationally, prices rose 0.7 per cent in the three months to November.

To view the listing on TradeMe click here.