Wanaka home sells for more than $2.1m

Covid-19 or no Covid-19, Wanaka’s property market is still booming after a small three-bedroom...
Covid-19 or no Covid-19, Wanaka’s property market is still booming after a small three-bedroom home sold for more than $2million last week. PHOTO: MARJORIE COOK
A small, three-bedroom Wanaka house was sold online for more than $2.1 million last week - more than double its rateable value of $930,000 and about five times what it might cost to build today.

Bayleys Wanaka agent Matt Ecroyd said 22 bidders registered for the auction.

The opening bid was $1.2 million and six active bidders placed 54 bids. The bidders came from Christchurch, Wanaka, Wellington, Auckland and Tauranga.

Queenstown Lakes District Council planning documents reveal the weatherboard and galvanised iron-roofed house at 116 Beacon Point Rd was originally built in the 1960s as a two-bedroom holiday residence for Miss A. Thompson, of Dunedin, by RW Firman Ltd, of Oamaru.

The estimated value of building the house was just over £1948, and the building consent fee was £9, according to a Lakes County Council consent issued in December 1965.

The Reserve Bank’s online inflation calculator shows housing that cost £1948 to build in 1966 would have cost $411,328 in 2021.

The house is set several blocks back from the lakefront. Bayleys Wanaka marketing information described it as a ‘‘cute crib’’ with ‘‘outstanding views’’.

A third bedroom and garage was added in the 1980s.

The rateable capital value is $930,000, attracting an annual rates bill of $3302.57.

The bulk of the rateable value is in the land (931sq m).

The property was sold in 1982 for $43,000, in 2003 for $525,000 and in 2014 for $620,000.

It spent just five weeks on the market and was auctioned last Saturday using Zoom.

Bayleys Wanaka director Mat Andrews said the Wanaka market was ‘‘extremely strong’’.