Half the eight houses offered in Oamaru's first mass auction sold, with two going even before bidding started.
The Oamaru Summer Gala Auction, attended by about 90 people on Tuesday night, brought big-city selling techniques to Oamaru through a list of properties handled by L. J. Hooker.
It also raised $110 from the auction of a hamper for the Bushfire Appeal Fund, being run nationwide by the real estate company.
Two houses, in Derwent and Solway Sts, were sold before the auction, one of which had been on the market for about a year.
Two other Oamaru houses were sold at the auction, one in Ettrick St starting at $75,000 and with a final successful bid of $101,000, and the other in Warwick St starting at $160,000 and selling for $191,000.
Three homes in Oamaru and one in Weston were passed in.
However, negotiations were continuing on some of them.
Oamaru principal Warren Prescott said the auction was an attempt to do something different in Oamaru and create interest.
"It's a different marketing strategy [for Oamaru]," he said.
The eight properties appealed to a wide range of buyers, from investors to first-home buyers.
