"[The auction] was a tough day at the office, but selling close to $1 million's worth was okay. The positive is that the development has been there for four or five years without a single sale being recorded, so it was hard to know what the sites were actually worth," Mr Rendell said.
The agents now had a benchmark figure to work from and he said sale prices made on Monday in some cases represented less than half what they were listed at when the development first went on the market.
He said there was plenty of interest in the sites and once discussions were held with Landcorp, negotiations with those interested were likely to continue. He felt once people could see the development progressing with homes being built more interest would be forthcoming.
"We've got the benchmark sales figure so I'm very pleased about that part. We, and the vendors, would have liked to have sold more, but it's a tough market at the moment," Mr Rendell said.
He said there were a lot of sections on the market in Northland and the interest in Wakelins seemed to come from people within the region.
"It's a beautiful spot and everything is in and ready to go, telephone, power, roading, everything so I'm sure we'll have even more interest."
Mr Rendell said subdivision development was not Landcorp's core business and it wanted the sections sold.
Most of the sections are conservation blocks with a high emphasis on environmental and ecological values.
Far North District Council bylaws prohibit any further subdivision of sites, thereby protecting buyers from housing intensification, he said.
