– Three South Auckland homes with $1 reserves sold for a total of $2.725 million.
– The properties attracted significant interest, with over 240 registered bidders at Ray White’s auction event.
– Ray White co-owner Tom Rawson noted below-RV prices are common in the current South Auckland market.
Three South Auckland homes that went to auction with $1 reserves ended up selling for a total $2.725 million.
The houses, which had a combined RV of more than $3 million, were snapped up at Ray White’s mega auction event in Manukau yesterday, and one of the buyers only decided to bid about 20 minutes before the property was called.
Ray White Manukau co-owner Tom Rawson told OneRoof that the South Auckland family who bought the six-bedroom home on Tims Crescent for $1.336m had turned up to bid on another house, only to learn it had been withdrawn from sale.
More than 30 bids were placed on each of the $1 reserve auctions at Ray White Manukau’s auction gala. Photo / Supplied
A bungalow on Favona Road, in Mangere, sold for $464,000 under the hammer. Photo / Supplied
Ray White agent Sumesh Prakash stepped in to tell them about Tims Crescent. They liked what they heard and dashed over to view it before the auction was called.
“They went through it and went ‘Yeah, that’s mean’ and came back to the office. They just walked in as the auction was kicking off and won it. They are stoked,” Rawson told OneRoof, noting that they were up against 26 other registered bidders.
The first $1 reserve property on the Ray White Manukau slate yesterday was a 1920s three-bedroom bungalow on Favona Road, in Māngere, which sold for $464,000 after 34 fast bids.
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Listing agent Pat Lapalapa told OneRoof before the auction that it was a good buy for first-time buyers with limited budgets. However, it was mainly investors and renovators who actually turned up to the auction.
Lapalapa had joked that someone had made a pre-auction offer of $1.50. “I just told them you have a good chance to win, so just bring an extra gold coin just in case.”
The second $1 reserve house was a four-bedroom home on Rushgreen Avenue, in Pahurehure. It got $925,000 – below its RV of $1.075m.
The bids, however, came fast and furious as buyers tried to snag a bargain. The property was snapped up by an investor in the end, but they had to fight off competition from 18 other registered bidders.
A four-bedroom home on Rushgreen Avenue, in Pahurehure, Papakura, sold for $925,000. Photo / Supplied
Rawson said that below-RV prices were a feature of the current housing market in South Auckland.
He said some properties, such as Tims Crescent, were competing in a swamped market; selling with a $1 reserve made sense. “Nothing beats the $1 reserve. You’ve got the deceased estates, which seem to be very popular. You’ve got the divorces, which also seem to be popular when you advertise them, but the cream of the crop are the $1 reserves.”
He earlier told OneRoof: “I think the main reason people chose [$1 reserve auctions] is that they don’t want to be on the market forever.
“Numerous times in the past, we’ve had vendors who are like, ‘We just need to sell, we don’t mind what we get. Chuck a dollar on it, it will work out.’ And it has typically worked out for all the people that have tried it because they identify themselves as serious sellers.”
This was the first time Ray White Manukau had held three $1 reserve auctions on the same day. Rawson said the auction room was “chocka” throughout the auction gala, with more than 240 registered bidders for the properties. Of the 37 properties called, 26 sold under the hammer, totalling over $25m worth of sales.