Record sale for out-of-zone home

241 St Andrews Rd, Epsom, is outside the sought-after grammar zone. Photo / Supplied

Epsom house sells for $395,000 over valuation - new owners explain why it was so attractive.

A house just 500 metres outside of Auckland's sought-after triple grammar zone has sold for nearly $400,000 above its valuation.

The real estate agent says it's a street record for the 100 or so homes on Epsom's St Andrews Rd that fall outside of the zones for Auckland Grammar School, Mt Albert Grammar School and Epsom Girls Grammar School.

The sale shows what house-hunters are still willing to pay to be within reach of the zones.

The three-bedroom 1920s stucco bungalow on an 890sq m section has a council valuation of $680,000 and sold for $1,075,000 - $395,000 or 58 per cent above it.

The house sold within nine days after five offers and 69 groups went through three open homes before Christmas.

The new owners - a couple in their 40s with a four-week-old daughter - told the Herald they were happy to settle for a home on the fringe.

The wife, who works as a financial analyst in the city, said: "The house prices for grammar zone are out of our reach ... But the part of Epsom that we've ended up being in we're more than happy with.

"It might be that the kids go to private school or something. It's sort of the next 10-year plan ..."

She said the location was close to Three Kings Primary School, where they hoped to send their daughter.

The couple had for eight years been living on the nearby Winstone Rd in Mt Roskill in their first home but wanted to move to Epsom.

The vendor, Alan Mules, 62, bought the property with his ex-wife in 2000 for about $400,000. Since then, one of the bathrooms has been renovated, a third bathroom put in, a walk-in-wardrobe installed in the main bedroom, a stormwater drain put in and the outside of the house painted. "We're really delighted with the market response, that's for sure," Mr Mules said. "But we understood that in the current market you can get anything."

Bayleys real estate agent Keith Ward said houses on the street that were south of Selwyn Rd, about halfway down the street, fell outside of the triple school zone. A sale that reached 58 per cent above its CV was a record for the street, he said.

"For all the houses in the non-grammar zone, I've looked back 10 years on every one of those properties, and every one of their sales histories and none of them have sold for anything like that sort of money."

He said the vendor had asked him to sell the house by auction in the new year but he'd advised them to take offers and brought the date forward, trusting the buoyant market would attract several buyers.

"We had five offers on it in seven days which shows you the depth of interest in the property and they were all north of $1 million ... two of the open homes were the weekend before Christmas when everybody had thousands of other things to do."