Flipping crazy! Two Auckland houses get sold five times in four days
Flipping crazy! Two Auckland houses get sold five times in four days
One of the properties was sold twice in a day
In case you were in any doubt of the red-hotness of Auckland property, have a chew on this.
Two houses in the city were turned over five times in a mere four days, with one of the properties selling twice in one day, reported The New Zealand Herald.
Regulators are currently investigating the properties, which sit adjacent to one another in the suburb of Mangere Bridge in the southern part of the city. “The natural question is if the property has been bought and sold a couple of times and the price keeps on going up, was the initial vendor looked after?” said Real Estate Agents Authority chief executive Kevin Lampen-Smith. “Any time transactions take place very quickly you have increased concern to make sure all parties are fully informed of the decisions they are making.”
The transactions, which took place in August, solidify Auckland’s reputation as one of the world’s hottest residential property markets. Flipping is an increasingly common occurrence in the city, where 1,831 properties were sold at least twice last year — 74 within a single month — according to real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.
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One of the Mangere Bridge properties is a chandelier-laden Victorian homestead with historic ties to Kiwi retailer George Courts. Located on a 1,897-square-metre lot along Coronation Road, the grandiose villa was first sold in February for NZD1.45m (USD1m) to investor Hua (Danny) Wu. It then passed hands in August to one Sha Liu, who then sold it four days later to property developer Treasure Plus.
By that time, the property had been worth NZD2.8 million.
Treasure Plus also acquired the bungalow next door from the same seller, on the same day. The property, which sits on an 802-sqm lot, had been sold twice on 4 August, first by Jessie and Ben Church to one Jia Liu, who then turned it over to Sha Liu.
Treasure Plus disavowed any knowledge of the previous transactions, but it announced plans to demolish the structures. Eighteen townhouses or similarly high-density buildings will be built in their stead.
Auckland was dubbed the world’s fastest growing luxury housing market in a 2016 survey by Christie’s International Real Estate. A Q2 2016 report from Chinese real estate portal Juwai.com also proclaimed New Zealand as having the world’s fastest growing residential prices.
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Source: Property Report