The competitive auction comes as fewer houses seem to be selling under the hammer across the city’s auction houses as the number of house sales in the city drop.
The five-bedroom, four-bathroom home on Creyke Road in Ilam, which borders the sought-after suburb of Fendalton fetched almost double its 2019 RV of $1.685m.
The property is “undeniably impressive” with “generous space and an exceptional level of luxury,” according to its listing ad.
Harcourts listing agent Cameron Bailey said two of the four Christchurch bidders “fought it out until the winning bid” making it one of the highest sales for Ilam. The bidding for the property which has views of the Waimairi Stream at the edge of the property, continued $108,500 over the reserve.
“It was a really good property with lots of land a big house and a really good house. It just shows you in this market that for a good property there’s still plenty of buyers out there and people are compared to compete.”
While it was a lot of money for an Ilam location, he said, it was still in the good school zones and just a couple of hundred metres away from popular Fendalton.
“If you put that property into Fendalton, it would probably be a $4m or $5m property. It’s still what I regard as a good location, but I think the buyer just got so much more value there because it’s fringe Fendalton I guess.”
There was still good competition for quality properties in all price ranges.
“Buyers aren’t prepared to compromise, but they will still compete for good quality property,” he said.
“People are more fussy now in what they buy and what they pay, but they’re prepared to pay good money for good properties. And things like busy roads and construction and flow and side of the street and general spec of the house probably weren’t taken into consideration as much last year with the shortage of property in a different market."
A six-bedroom, three-bathroom home on Bells Rd in West Melton was also snapped up at Bayleys auctions last week – just two of five properties to sell under the hammer.
The large 436sqm home on a lifestyle section sold for $2.145m, while a contemporary three-bedroom, one-bathroom home on Deal St in Wigram sold for $830,000 also at the Bayleys auction. Three other properties were passed in.
While the most expensive property to sell at Harcourts Grenadier’s auction this week was a “timeless” four-bedroom, three-bathroom house at Lavandula Crescent in Burnside fetching $1.465m.
Just five of the 17 properties called the Harcourts Grenadier sold at auction with the four other properties selling between $500,000 and $708,000.
Freeman said the market is “pretty quiet” at the moment, but more listings were starting to come online so expected to see more activity from September as the weather improves.
Ray White Metro director Tony McPherson said the number of properties being called at auction has dropped slightly, but so have the number of listings.
“That’s probably keeping the interest and the prices seem to be reasonably holding.”
Properties are still selling well across the board with three to four-bedroom homes still in demand, while townhouses and units are a bit harder to move at the moment, he said. His agency had sold two properties over $1m.
Suburbs still proving popular as always are those close to the CBD such as Fendalton, Merivale, Spreydon, Somerfield and Cashmere.
