Offered for sale for the first time in 50 years, a 15.5-hectare Hunua lifestyle property attracted strong interest before selling well at auction in September.
Located 24 kilometres northeast of Pukekohe and 12 kilometres southeast of Takanini, the property commands views to Rangitoto, and across the whole of Auckland, including towards the harbour. Kane Needham of PGG Wrightson Real Estate, Pukekohe offered the property for sale. He said the auction created great interest.
“Taking a slightly unusual property to auction is a sure fire way to heighten market enthusiasm. In this campaign we put particular emphasis on social media,” he says.
That approach gained a strong response, reaching more than 25,000 people, which resulted in almost 12,000 checking the listing online and 18 groups taking the next step to view the property in person.
When auction day came around, one bidder was in the room and two others attended by phone. The prevailing bid was $1.72 million.
Back in the 1970s the Hunua property was purchased by Grahame Pole. Initially he used it as a thoroughbred stud. One of the horses he bred, named after the stream that runs through the property, Whisky Creek turned out to be a useful hurdler. Grahame Pole drained an old kauri swamp that also bisected the property, converting it to pasture, building stables and re-fencing suitable for horses.
PGG Wrightson Livestock representative Andy Person has a long relationship with the Pole family. When Phil Pole, Grahame’s son, spoke to Andy about selling, he suggested contacting Kane. Phil says they were pleased with the marketing campaign, especially the clear and open communication around it.
“The whole PGG Wrightson Real Estate team pulled together to do a fantastic job. They exceeded our expectations, identifying potential buyers and dealing with them very professionally throughout,” says Phil.
PGG Wrightson head auctioneer Sloane Morpeth conducted the sale. He says now is a particularly good time to offer lifestyle property by auction.
“There’s never a ‘wrong’ time to stage an auction. At present, with the market tending more positive than it has done recently, an auction creates a clear, transparent competition that encourages purchasers to reach a fair value and settle on an optimum price. That is exactly what happened on this occasion,” he says.
Via Sloane Morpeth, PGG Wrightson Real Estate is taking several more lifestyle properties to auction in the spring, including feature properties in Northland and Bay of Plenty.
Why auction works for lifestyle property
For a lifestyle property, an auction demonstrates the owner’s serious intent to sell, while a marketing campaign with an agreed auction date establishes a focus for anyone interested in buying, giving them a deadline to complete feasibility studies and arrange finance.
Sometimes the prospect of an auction will motivate an enthusiastic buyer to make an unconditional offer, giving the vendor the option to accept, or to hold out until auction day.
On auction day, for those selling an auction’s major advantage is the degree of authority they maintain. While the buyer sets the price, the seller controls the process.
For the vendor, an auction works best when two or more motivated buyers come into the auction room with sufficient equity to compete. Once a bidder meets the reserve the auction is live, then when the auctioneer’s hammer falls, the sale is unconditional.
On those occasions when no bid meets the reserve, the auction will likely have identified other options to progress a sale. At that point, there may be two parties, buyer and seller, sufficiently motivated to complete a deal. That’s where the auctioneer can bring them together and initiate negotiation, seeking to reach agreement between them on conditions that will enable a sale to proceed.
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