The properties at 24B and 54 Scroggs Hill Rd in the seaside suburb south of Dunedin were put on the market late last year after being rezoned into a subdivision at the start of 2019.
That rezoning turned the land into 24 sections. Asking prices for the lots ranged from $200,000 to $290,000.
They were sold by LJ Hooker real estate agent Jason Hynes, who said it was the fastest-selling subdivision he had ever listed.
‘‘I’ve marketed lots of subdivisions before and this would by far be the quickest.
‘‘For instance, I marketed one in Abbotsford called Grand Vista, which was quite significantly bigger; it was about 170 lots, that development.
‘‘That was in stages and some of those stages were 25 to 30 sections, so quite a similar size.
‘‘In some instances they took 12 to 24 months to sell.’’
The land was owned by Frances Edmonds, who Mr Hynes said lived in the area and had owned the land for more than 30 years.
Tenders for the lots closed at the end of November and some people were so keen to buy one of the lots they put up to 10 tenders in, Mr Hynes said.
‘‘The prices exceeded our expectations. We had over 100 tenders that were submitted for the 24 sections that were being offered for sale.
‘‘Really popular, I guess; just the shortage of land in Dunedin ... was a catalyst, or one of the catalysts, I guess, for the interest.
‘‘The land itself is also quite level; it’s quite easy to build on ... so that was also another plus for the buyers that were out there on the marketplace.’’
Each of the lots were sold to individual buyers, Mr Hynes said.
He said interest in the properties came from people in Dunedin, Central Otago, the North Island and Australia.
The sale showed an intense interest in property in Dunedin, Mr Hynes said, and he hoped more would come on the market soon.
‘‘Wish that we could have a few more developments to cope with the demand that’s out there.
‘‘That’s probably why [with] the existing houses there’s been so much pressure put on with regards to the prices there in Dunedin, just because of the fact there hasn’t been a huge amount of land opened up.
‘‘Certainly be good to get many more.’’
Dunedin home buyers paid an average $90,000 more for a house in November than at the same time in 2018, as the city led an overall 14.4% price surge across the Otago region.
Market data for November from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand showed homes in and around the city were a fifth more expensive at $520,000 per deal, up from $430,000 last November.
Dunedin growth had also reflected lower sales volumes, overall sales declining 19.3% to 197.
