– Lea Jurkovich has had the listing for 12 Michelle Place, Hahei, for over 1000 days.
– The price was reduced from $2m to $1.77m to attract buyers.
– The property earns around $1000 a night as a holiday let during high season.
A Coromandel real estate agent has just set a personal record – but it’s one not many agents would wish to boast about.
Bayleys’ Lea Jurkovich has had the listing for 12 Michelle Lane, in Hahei, for just over 1000 days. She isn’t giving up, though. In fact, she believes she’ll get a buyer for the four-bedroom house soon.
The owners have adjusted their price expectations, dropping from the $2 million they thought they’d get when they brought the beach house to market in October 2022 to $1.77m.
The property has dropped in price from $2m to $1.77m. Photo / Supplied
Jurkovich told OneRoof: “This [1000 days] is a record for me, and I think it’s such a waste because it’s such a good property. There’s a lot there.
“You just walk through to the beach on your left, and to the right, you walk down to the reserve. It’s got a massive garage and it’s being sold completely furnished.”
The Waikato-based owners built the house 20 years ago as their beach escape, but now that their children have flown the nest, they wanted to sell. “It’s just surplus, really,” Jurkovich said.
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The house was also an “absolute money spinner”, she said. As a holiday let, it rakes in around $1000 a night during the high season, mainly “because it can sleep 12”.
At the end of last year, Jurkovich sold a large property on Hahei Beach Road after 871 days on the market.
She picked up the listing after it had already been with a different agency for three months and hung on to it for two-and-a-half years.
It was listed for sale in July 2022 for $2.9m and sold in December 2024 for $2.75m.
A large home on Hahei Beach Road sold at the end of last year after 871 days on the market. Photo / Supplied
Two families had built the property together 20 years ago and were selling because one of the owners was moving to the South Island.
The six-bedroom, four-bathroom property had been divided into two wings connected by a large kitchen, which had been a deterrent for buyers who wanted each wing to be self-contained.
“That [shared kitchen] was a stumbling block for a lot of people as well as the price, which was up there for a beach house.”
It eventually sold to a family who were looking to move to the area and planned to use the second wing for accommodation for visiting friends and relatives.
Jurkovich had been at the Hahei Beach Road property so often that she got to know the next-door neighbour well. “He always used to say, ‘Lea when you sell that house, I’m buying you a bottle of champagne’.”
She added: “I was there in every weather … I would sit in a drought when it was steaming hot and I could barely stand up in the heat, during winter, then Cyclone Gabrielle. It became a story.”
Jurkovich said the owners couldn’t believe it when it finally sold.
“They thanked me for my tenacity, and I thanked them for having faith in me. We just stuck in there.”
There are currently three properties in Hahei that have been on the market for 12 months or more.
Jurkovich said some owners changed agents when they didn’t get immediate results, but she managed to keep her clients. “I think for vendors, if they can see that the agent is doing everything – contacting them all the time and saying, ‘Have you thought about this?’ or ‘Let’s look at this angle’ – it would be hard for them to think there must be better elsewhere.”
She added: “I tell my vendors, ‘When you give up, I’ll give up. But until then I’m pushing hard’.”
Jurkovich said other market conditions over the past few years had also contributed to these properties sitting on the market for longer, but in the last few weeks, she had noticed an uptick in buyer interest.
“We are coming up to Labour Weekend, which is a good start for summer selling, so 12 Michelle Lane will go. It will.”
– 12 Michelle Lane, in Hahei, is for sale with an asking price of $1.77m