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Five Auckland Double Grammar zone homes sold at least $300,000 under CV in the past month - including one single grammar-zoned home for just $100,000.
Parents and buyers looking to move into Auckland’s coveted Double Grammar zone have been snapping up homes for as much as $700,000 underCV in recent weeks.
One first-home buyer even paid just $100,000 to move into the Epsom Girls’ Grammar zone.
AHerald analysis of a selection of Auckland auction prices from the past four weeks shows six Double Grammar zone homes selling for at least $300,000 below their council valuations.
Families have long sought to live in the inner Auckland zone because children within its catchment can get free education at two of the nation’s most prestigious public schools: Auckland Grammar and Epsom Girls’ Grammar.
And, in what appears to be one of best recent deal, a foreign buyer picked up a three-bed home at 105 The Drive in Epsom for $1.7 million on March 20 - well below its $2.4m council valuation.
Advertisements for the home said the previous owners had lived there for the past 38 years.
“Well-balanced homes that have the X-factor of peacefulness, exceptional locale, top schooling, amazing convenience, and a great home needing some TLC simply do not appear often,” the property’s Barfoot & Thompson advertisement states.
The raft of Double Grammar homes selling at auction under CV comes as Auckland’s median price sits at $1.026m, according to industry group the Real Estate Institute.
The Herald tracked just a slice of the market but found that from among the 352 sale prices tracked over the past four weeks, 237 sold below the Auckland Council valuations of the same properties
Wayne Shum, a senior researcher with analyst Valocity, said that is not necessarily a surprise as Auckland prices are at a standstill at the moment.
The council did its valuations in 2021, which was close to the period when Auckland prices hit record highs, Shum said.
5 Dovedale Place in Parnell sold for $100,500 at auction, but there's a catch: it's a leasehold property.
He said buyers snapping up homes well below CV were often able to capitalise on situations where sellers had to sell quickly.
That included cases such as when they’ve bought another house and need to sell their existing home quickly to pay for it or if they are struggling to keep up with high mortgage interest payments.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Ian Thornhill from the team that sold 105 The Drive in Epsom said the previous owners had lived in the home for decades and had sold now due to changing family circumstances.
The home had also not been significantly done up in that time.
With buyers being able to take their time to choose what to buy, it meant prices could vary a lot depending on circumstances, he said.
As an example, his team sold another home at 11 Epsom Ave in February for $6.045m or $645,000 above CV, he said.
Similarly, Abbey Davis, from the Harcourts team that sold 83 Balmoral Rd in Mt Eden for $2.42m or $630,000 below CV, said sale prices depend a lot on individual houses at the moment.
The home at 83 Balmoral Rd had also not had renovations recently, whereas another renovated home on the same street sold for $400,000 more.
“If you look at the homes that are going under CV, usually they are not renovated or have had no recent renovation,” she said.
Other homes included 83 Bassett Rd in Remuera where the buyers were able to get three bedrooms and a harbour view for $2.495m or $505,000 below CV.
But it was a first-home buyer couple that found one of the cheapest ways to get into the Epsom Girls’ Grammar zone when they paid just $100,500 for a Parnell townhouse at 5 Dovedale Pl.
However, of course, there is a catch - with the purchase being for a leasehold property, meaning the owners own the building but not the land.
The townhouse is among 39 sitting on leasehold land owned by Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei.
That means that while the Dovedale Pl townhouse has a council CV of $1.02m, just $380,000 is for the townhouse building, with the rest being the value of the land.
Dominic Worthington, from the Ray White team that sold the townhouse, said it highlights how the council’s valuations are unfair on the 10,000-15,000 leasehold owners in the city.
That’s because in the case of 5 Dovedale Pl, the owners pay rates according to the full $1.02m value of the property, yet they don’t own the land valued at $640,000.
105 The Drive in Epsom had been owned by the same owners for 38 years.
Still, he believes the townhouse buy was a great purchase for the first-home buyers who picked it up.
They will have to pay annual ground rents and rates but, at $100,000, the purchase was less than most Auckland deposits, he said.
Banks typically don’t lend for leasehold homes either, so buyers need to make sure they have enough cash to fund the entire purchase.
There has also been a troubled history with the Dovedale Pl homes.
The previous owner had owned the townhouse for about 20 years and had to fund leaky building repairs in the early 2000s, while the property was also flooded and damaged in the January 2023 floods.
However, Worthington said the recent repairs had been done to a high standard, with earthquake ratings and new carpets and kitchens on the ground floor.
“I tell you if there are any floods or anything happens in Auckland again, they are going to be the last thing standing.”
