The number of Canterbury sales in July fell 29 per cent and took seven days longer to sell compared to the same time last year as people took advantage of the school holidays and flocked to the sun or snow.
But despite fewer sales, the region’s house prices remained steady with a median sales price of $678,000 – up 13.6 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest Real Estate Institute of New Zealand figures released this week.
Christchurch’s median sales price in July was $660,000, up 10 per cent year-on-year but down 5.7 per cent compared with the month prior. There were 432 sales in the Garden City, a 35 per cent drop on the same time last year.
The original 1920s house on Sinclair St in New Brighton attracted 14 bids from five bidders last week as properties with realistic owners continued to sell well.
The New Brighton home was marketed as not being for the “faint-hearted” and needed “a little imagination, a lot of paint and a fair bit of work” or, according to the ad, the new buyer could demolish the two-bedroom house with a study and build their dream home on the 693sqm section.
Bayleys Christchurch salesperson Barbara Johnston, who marketed the property, said the neglected house hadn’t had any EQC repairs carried out on it, but had attracted interest from investors in Auckland and Wellington as well as renovators because it was affordable.
The new owner was a local builder who rented on the same street and planned to do it up to live in.
“Some people are starting to see Christchurch as a little gem some people have said. It’s a secret. We’ve got a lovely city centre and things are developing really beautiful now and I think people are seeing that and it’s becoming more attractive.”
She was also marketing a 1950s four-bedroom, two-bathroom house at 15 Milnebank Road in Upper Riccarton which had been in the same family for 50 years and expected it to be snapped up as a student rental due to its close proximity to the university.
“As is, where is” properties with earthquake damage were continuing to be popular with two more also selling under the hammer at Harcourts Grenadier’s auctions yesterday.
A house on Silvester Street in Woolston sold for $568,000 to a developer and another on Mt Pleasant Road in Mt Pleasant with sweeping views sold for $487,000.
Harcourts Grenadier managing director Andy Freeman said there was usually a lot of interest in these properties because they were usually a whole lot cheaper and some of the damaged properties still got similar rental income to those that weren’t.
“There’s still a lot of them out there. To be fair a lot of them haven’t been repaired.”
Last month a two-bedroom earthquake-damaged house on Celia Street in Redcliffs exceeded both vendor and agent expectations after selling in an intense auction for $562,000 – more than $70,000 above RV.
A total of 13 of the 15 properties sold at Harcourts Grenadier’s auction this week and all were under $900,000. The cheapest property was a unit on Burdale Street in Riccarton that went for $380,000 and the most expensive was on Gammack Drive in Halswell fetching $832,000.
Bayleys Christchurch general manager of sales Rachel Dovey said houses were still selling well at auction and the agency had a 60 per cent auction success rate in July, which was only 20 per cent less than when the market was at its peak.
Dovey said the auction process was “helping line-up buyers” and even if they didn’t sell on the day the majority of properties were attracting multiple offers and selling within two weeks of being called.
A four-bedroom, one-bathroom house on Ashbourne Street in Burnside had no bidders at auction and sold within two weeks sold after being listed for $749,000 and receiving three offers.
A three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Balgay Street in Upper Riccarton also passed in at auction sold but sold for within two weeks after getting four offers.
“I think the vendors are motivated, I think the people coming to market are listening and are ending up getting a reasonable result. I don’t think there’s too much stock where people are holding out for dream prices, I think people are realistic and those deals are coming together.”
“July was terrible. If people weren’t in Fiji they were in Queenstown. Noone was around, it was the school holidays, it was miserable and the borders were open so quite a shift in mentality there. But days to sell were down seven days - that’s a real stretch out – but look on Facebook if people aren’t in the snow they are in the snow.”
Properties were also still selling well at Harcourts Gold’s at auctions yesterday with six of the nine properties getting new owners.
A four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on a 1464sqm section on Wairakei Road in Bryndwr sold for $1.591m after 40 bids from two buyers.
There were also three buyers competing for a property on Derby Street in St Albans and on Chilcombe Street in Fendalton. The Fendalton house sold under the hammer for $1.442m.
Najib Real Estate managing director Nathan Najib said while the market has slowed down across the board, they were still seeing strong demand for luxury homes especially from out-of-towners.
“We still have some national buyers who were cashed up last year or the start of this year and are moving down to Christchurch.”
He said in the last two years both ex-pats and people from mainly Auckland, Wellington and Nelson had been moving down and taking advantage of the cheaper market.
Najib recently sold a property to a Wellington couple who had sold their Wellington house for more than $3m and bought a 380sqm house on a 3000sqm section in West Melton for $2.175m.
“For $2.175m you can get one of the nicest houses in Christchurch.”
Not only had they bought a better house, but they had also got a better lifestyle and still had $1.5m in the bank, he said.
