Auckland, Grey Lynn home sells for $755,000 profit in seven months

This Grey Lynn house resold earlier this week for a profit of about $100,000 a month higher than its previous sale in August. Photo / Supplied

An Auckland villa bought last August has just been resold for a $755,000 resale jump - netting its owners more than $100,000 in capital gains per month.

The three-bedroom Grey Lynn home at 3 Schofield St sold at auction for $2.55 million on Wednesday as house prices continued to skyrocket.

The owners earlier paid $1.825m for the villa in August, with marketing photos from the time appearing to show little had been done to improve the property leading up to its incredible resale profit.

When contacted by the Herald, the owners did not wish to talk about the resale.

But they appeared to run a home renovation company and may have done work on the home prior to relisting it.

Its most recent marketing said the winning buyer could potentially take advantage of a concept plan drawn up to extend the property.

Bruce Patten, a director with Loan Market, which helps hook up buyers with home loans, said the villa's resale gain was a "crazy increase" in such a short period of time.

But it chimed with the booming market he had been seeing, in spite of changes to loan-to-value ratio rules that made it harder for investors to access mortgages.

"We are still seeing a huge amount of buying activity. The [LVR] rule changes haven't slowed down investors in any significant way."

Auckland and national house prices continued their meteoric rise in February as they hit a new record high, the Real Estate Institute said.

Auckland's median sales price soared to $1.1m, while national prices climbed to $780,000.

The Grey Lynn villa, which featured original timber flooring, a large open plan living area opening on to a deck and 601sq m section, was among a host of homes fetching stunning prices in recent weeks.

Others included a Sandringham 1900s bay villa that sold at auction on Friday for $3.8m.

That was close to $1.5m above the four-bedroom home's $2.35m council valuation and way above its $3.3m pre-auction offer.

The smartly renovated home came with a modern open plan kitchen and living area and a 642sq m block "in a coveted location on the city fringe".

This Sandringham villa sold yesterday for $3.8 million - close to $1.5m over its CV. Photo / Ted Baghurst

According to Bayleys agent David Rainbow, the big spending was also washing into luxury apartment and townhouse sales.

While Aucklanders had been slightly reluctant to embrace apartment living in the past, downsizing baby-boomers were now forking out big sums, he told property website OneRoof.

Earlier this month, one of Rainbow's listings, a three-bedroom apartment at Remuera's Broadway Park on 38 James Cook Cres sold for $3.43m – almost $1 million above its council valuation.

The 187sq m apartment included views of Mt Hobson and Rangitoto Island, three car parks and an open plan lounge and kitchen with sweeping views.

Holiday hotspots outside the city were also going strong with fellow Bayleys agent Paul Elsden helping sell an Omaha bach for $2.345m - more than $600,000 above its $1.83m pre-auction offer and well above its $1.05m council valuation.

OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said the NZME-owned property listing site had 25 per cent more new homes listed for sale than January, highlighting the confidence in the market.

Real Estate Institute chief executive Bindi Norwell also said February was a huge month based on their statistics.

"The unrelenting pace of property sales continued in February, with a 14.6 per cent uplift on sales volumes compared to the same time last year - the highest number of properties sold for the month of February in 14 years," she said.

The Weekend Herald reported yesterday that a quarter of New Zealand's household wealth is concentrated in the hands of the richest 1 per cent, according to two new, experimental estimates produced by the Treasury at the Government's behest.

The new estimates suggested that the top percentile of the population holds significantly more wealth than official statistics show, meaning that wealth disparity between the richest and poorest of Kiwis is likely to be much greater than previously thought.

Treasury's work also showed 63-70 per cent of the country's wealth is held by the richest 10 per cent.