A Kiwi couple who bought a near-new home in South Auckland for $970,000 resold it one year later for the same amount, after separating.
The Harcourts agents marketing the three-bedroom home on Matairangi Avenue, in Totara Heights, had billed it as an “urgent sale”.
The sellers were already on the back foot after an earlier deal to buy the property collapsed.
The listing for the property was headlined: "Previous buyers failed to settle - Must sell ASAP."
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The listing then went onto say: "Our owners have decided to part ways with each other and this property is the last piece of the puzzle."
The property passed in at auction, but there had been buyers in the auction room waiting to make conditional offers.
It went unconditional for $972,500 within three days and had a five-day settlement.
The owners of the Matairangi Avenue home had pushed for an urgent sale. Photo / Supplied
The owners of a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home on Dublin Street, in Pukekohe, also sold their home after parting ways.
They had been trying to sell the property for 10 months when in April, they reluctantly revealed they were separating so buyers knew just how serious they were about selling. They paid $580,000 for the do-up property in 2020 and spent a lot of money renovating it. They sold it for $620,000.
A family home in Glenfield and another on Onslow Avenue, in Epsom, are also for sale because the owners are divorcing. Barfoot & Thompson agent Ron Zhu said they had advertised it as a “divorce forces sale” to show the buyers they were keen to sell quickly.
An offer on the three-bedroom, one-bathroom Glenfield property, on the North Shore, has just gone unconditional this week, but the rental property at 72C Onslow Avenue, in Epsom, is still for sale.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit has a rental appraisal of $850 a week and is zoned for Epsom Girls Grammar and Auckland Grammar. It has a CV of $1.55 million and last sold for $1.2355m in 2020, OneRoof records show.
Harcourts salesperson Harsh Kathuria said earlier in the year he had sold houses due to people separating, but more recently he had noticed an uptick in vendors moving to Australia.
A divorce is forcing the sale of the unit in Onslow Avenue, Epsom. Photo / Supplied
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit has a rental appraisal of $850 a week. Photo / Supplied
The owners of one of his new listings, a five-bedroom home at 42 Matairangi Avenue, in Totara Heights, had accepted a job offer in Sydney and needed to sell.
“... Bags are packed and tickets are booked. This must sell!” the listing on OneRoof said.
The couple paid $1.3001m for the Fletcher Living home in December 2022 but were ready to accept $1.249m.
The “super motivated” owners of a five-bedroom home at 27 Laquinta Place, in Flat Bush, were also relocating to Sydney for work and were inviting enquiries over $999,000 - well below the CV of $1.36m. The property last changed hands for $980,000 in March 2020.
Ray White Manukau co-owner Tom Rawson said while there were owners selling due to divorce, he had noticed even more properties being listed for sale because the vendors were off to Australia.
Of the 48 properties they have just listed to be sold at a big auction event on July 31, seven were on the market because the owners were either in Australia or on the way there. There were three more being sold because the owners were moving outside Auckland.
“Everyone on the market has got real good intent.”
The owners of a five-bedroom home at 27 Laquinta Place, in Flat Bush, have accepted a job in Sydney so need to sell. Photo / Supplied
The owners of a four-bedroom home at 29 Lendenfeld Drive, in Papatoetoe, have already moved to Brisbane, while the owners of a three-bedroom at 52 Hall Avenue, in Mangere, were living in Australia and had decided to sell the property they inherited that was being lived in by family members.
Ray White listing agent Pat Lapalapa said people moving to Australia was an increasingly common reason for selling one’s house. A property on Zoe Court, in Alfriston, sold for $930,000 last week because the owners had moved to Perth a few days earlier and he is about to list another property so the owners can shift to Melbourne.
“We are noticing a massive uptake in people just moving to Australia,” he said.
“This is not a one-off. The last mega auction I had three clients who all moved to Australia – they’ve already left.”
Lapalapa said people were “just over it” and finding it too hard to hold on to their properties with the rising cost of living.
“They are like petrol is expensive, food is expensive and the money is better over in Australia and expenses are not so bad.”
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