House flip: Beach Haven home jumps $175,000 in price to $1.08m in just two months

The house in Beach Haven sold last week for $1.08 million after it was purchased in March for $905,000.

A Beach Haven house which sold two months ago for $905,000 has just been flipped for $1.08 million.

An extra $175,000 was paid for the relatively plain house at 26 Sea Vista Ave on the North Shore and Jonny Gu, the Barfoot & Thompson agent who sold it, said it went over the phone last Thursday to a person in China.

"I'm not sure if he's Chinese or is immigrating," Gu said of the buyer. "The house is empty. It was telephone bidding. There's been nothing done to it between the sales. Similar things happen all the time. The buyer is Chinese because the seller is Chinese," Gu said.

The $905,000 sale which settled in early March on the 1960s house was quickly followed by the latest on Thursday for $1.08 million.

"Auckland has become speculator's paradise," said one observer who supplied the information about the property to the Herald. "A Beach Haven house sells for $180,000 more in just 2.5 months."

QV records show the 146sq m three-bedroom weatherboard and brick house with harbour views and a basement double garage stands on an 827sq m site. The house was built in 1964.

The two sales were only about 60 days apart and on each of those days, the house was climbing in value by about $2300/day: the difference the second buyer was prepared to pay the first.

But the property's CV calculated just two years ago is only a fraction of its selling price: $650,000 as at July 1, 2014.

The house has views of the upper Waitemata harbour. Its bathroom and kitchen have been renovated. The Barfoot ad also shows it has one lounge and one bathroom.

Tomorrow's Budget is not expected to contain any wide-sweeping measures to address Auckland's spiraling unaffordability or the effect overseas buyers are having on Auckland's overheated market.

Property records showed the house was owned by Xiaohong Wang who is also listed as owning a number of Auckland properties spread throughout Henderson, Blockhouse Bay, Unsworth Heights, Whakatane, West Harbour, Orewa and Torbay. The owner is also listed as having houses in Dunedin and Hamilton East.

"Peaceful and quiet cul-de-sac situation. CV is $650,000, but you tell me what it worth," said the Barfoot ad which now shows the property as sold.

Latest data from Quotable Value shows Auckland house values rose 16.5 per cent annually in the year to April.

Values in the former Auckland Council area, the more central part of Auckland, are up 72.5 per cent since the previous market peak in 2007, QV data shows.