In a highly competitive auction, a fire-damaged property in South Auckland with a $1 reserve, has been sold for $661,000.
The elderly owners of the three-bedroom home on Roscommon Road in Clendon Park were unable to finance the rebuild, prompting them to take it to auction with a set reserve of $1.
The auction attracted an unprecedented 32 registered bidders, which opened at $1.50 and quickly escalated to $150,000 and then $340,000.
The bidding slowed with the price going up in increments of about $20,000, eventually reaching the half-a-million-dollar mark, at which point smaller bids ranging from $1000 to $2000 were made
Only a phone bidder and one in-person bidder remained once it hit $550,000 and it eventually sold under the hammer for $661,000 to an investor.
The property had a Rating Valuation (RV) of $860,000, with the land alone (607sqm) valued at $840,000.
Tom Rawson, co-owner of Ray White Manukau, said the auction drew the most number of registered bidders they had ever had, and a substantial amount of bids were made.
We haven’t had an auction like that since 2021 probably. A third of them got the chance to bid. There are the opportune ones there thinking if it goes to $10,000 or $5000 or $5, they better be registered – but it found the market level which is the confidence people can have in the auctions.
The price had surpassed Rawson’s own expectations as he had thought it would sell for around the mid-$500,000s.
The elderly owners were very happy with the result, he said. “It frees them up now to move on with their plans.”
He believed the large amount of interest was due to buyers knowing that the owners were committed to selling and not time-wasters.
“I think buyers were encouraged that their motivation was openly expressed. There were investors, builders, there were people who wanted to rebuild the house – obviously that wasn’t really a possibility.”
Rawson said earlier this month that the sellers had decided to let the market decide what the property was worth in its current “as is” condition.
The house was uninsured when it burnt down.
“I would say it’s not for the faint-hearted, but it is for those that can see opportunity and create opportunities and someone who buys this will come in with a plan.”
Ray White Manukau is also marketing a block of three commercial shops on the corner of Gloucester Road and Browns Road, in Manurewa, which was also struck by fire, with smoke and water damage, and needs a new owner to either repair, expand and re-lease or completely rebuild it.
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