– House prices fall hard in Auckland’s ‘bullet-proof’ suburbs<\/a><\/p>\nHe said, as a developer, he was happy to take the cash and move on, even though the house would no doubt fetch a lot more once the market improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Dad were talking about it. We think the buyers will be sitting in the house thinking they have bought really well here,\u201d he said, adding that the quality of the villa\u2019s build passed the buyers\u2019 due diligence with flying colours. <\/p>\n
Bayleys listing agent Jackson Tariau, who marketed the property with David Simons and Jennifer Munns, told OneRoof that the deal was done very quickly.<\/p>\n
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Lady Key, with husband Sir John in 2016. She worked with son Max on the villa. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
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The Point Chevalier villas during the build. Photo \/ Jason Oxenham<\/p>\n
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A fire-damaged house in Auckland\u2019s Parnell is Key\u2019s next big project. Photo \/ Jason Oxenham<\/p>\n
The buyers were expats returning from London and had put in an offer at the asking price. \u201cThey were just back in New Zealand; they moved on it. They had one look, said \u2018Yep, we\u2019re interested,\u2019 and came back for one final look before they made the offer. It was sold in five working days.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tariau added: \u201cI think it is the third highest sale price in Point Chevalier this year. There has not been an overly big demand in the suburb for homes at that price level,\u201d he said, adding that over 60 groups had viewed the property. <\/p>\n
OneRoof figures show just one settled sale in the suburb for over $3m, compared to 13 over $3m last year, one at $4.6m. <\/p>\n
Tariau noted that while the property had a luxury finish, it was on a 368sqm section with only a courtyard for outdoor living. That aspect had put off local buyers, who were looking for more backyard.<\/p>\n
Key said the feedback was helpful for future projects. \u201cThe kitchen was on the second floor, and that put Point Chev market off because they wanted to see the kids. At the start of the process, I thought, \u2018Well, even though it\u2019s not ground-floor living, it\u2019s got nice indoor-outdoor flow, and is so beautiful people will want to buy it.’<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they were saying, \u2018It is prettier, it is better built, but functionally the s****ier house down the road serves our purpose better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had built this house in Westmere, people would have absolutely bitten off our arms to get it. The buyers in Point Chev are slightly different, and I did not quite understand the nuance.\u201d <\/p>\n
Key said that as the development market quietened this year, he tapped contacts to create Key Interiors with interior designer Suzanne Allan. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a good way to turn cash over and keep the staff busy. We are being a bit of a disruptor in the market and getting a few big jobs. I am just so much more efficient, and we have everything in house, including a painting company,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The company is about to start the renovation of the fire-damaged villa Key bought for just over $1.3m two years ago in Parnell. Key is tweaking the configuration to appeal to Parnell\u2019s wealthy downsizer market, putting in two high-spec bedrooms rather than squeezing in a third or fourth bedroom, and is aiming for $2m-$3m when it hits the market early next year. <\/p>\n
He said his Stonewood Key development company with John and Michael Chow will be starting on two new projects early next year: six duplexes in St Heliers and a nine-house project in Glen Innes aimed at entry-level buyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to move away from mass scale to do really high spec. You can see in this market the amount of developer stock that has not sold because it was not built nicely,” he told OneRoof. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be able to drive past stuff that we built and be really proud of it.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added: “It’s tough, but in a weird way I\u2019m really grateful for everything that’s come out of this year.\u201d <\/p>\n
– Click here to find more properties for sale in Auckland <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"– Max Key sold an Auckland villa for $2.845 million to expats after two price drops. – The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,1258,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-24324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-latest-news","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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