Queenstown real estate auction nets $20m

Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images
Just over $20 million of housing stock sold at auction in Queenstown yesterday.

Bayley’s "mega-auction", in which 24 properties went under the hammer at the Sofitel Hotel, was touted as a headlight indicator for the upcoming state of New Zealand’s housing market.

Bayley’s Queenstown executive director Stacy Coburn said 15 properties sold, 11 yesterday and four prior to the auction, and six conditional offers were placed post-auction.

The majority of purchasers were from Auckland and Hamilton, he said.

"It probably reinforces what’s been happening in the market up there, where a lot of people have been missing out on properties there given the heat in the property market ... and looking at properties elsewhere.

"Queenstown hasn’t seen the same heat as Auckland, Dunedin, Whangarei - even Christchurch is going incredibly well from a low base.

"But we’re just starting to see some real urgency in buying mid-December and that’s carried on."

It was standing room only by 11am as would-be buyers - and others keen to observe - packed in as Bayley’s national auction manager Conor Patton took hold of the gavel.

A Jack’s Point home, on Orford Dr, fetched the top price of the day.

Bidding on the four-bedroom property, with two living areas and three bathrooms on an 894sq m section, opened at $1.6 million.

Less than five minutes and 15 bids later, the property sold for $2.05 million.

Mr Coburn said the vendors of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home at Belfast Tce, on Queenstown Hill, were "ecstatic" at the result from their auction.

The property, on 696sq m, sold for $1.9 million.

It was sold by a couple who had lived in the property for more than 23 years and were moving to the Arrowtown Lifestyle Retirement Village.

A four-bedroom home, with two living areas and three bathrooms at Lake Hayes Estate’s Sylvan St sold for $1.475 million, which was "in terms of the market ... a really good number", Mr Coburn said.

"I think the vendors’ expectations were really very varied in this campaign but, as a result, a lot of them are pretty happy, actually."

While in some other centres around the country there had been "a real shortage of listings", supply in Queenstown was holding up.

He believed there was a possibility homes previously used as rental properties in older areas of the resort, for example Sunshine Bay and Fernhill, might soon come to the market.

"A lot of landlords and home owners have gone through a real correction in rentals, although rentals have bottomed out now, at worst there was a drop by some 30% in Queenstown.

"They [the owners] have gone through the Healthy Homes legislation and now they’ve gone through further amendments to the tenancy legislation, I feel that a lot of owners and landlords are probably at the point where they’re going to sell.

"We may see a spike in some of those listings."

tracey.roxburgh@odt.co.nz

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