It is also the most expensive property to sell at auction in Christchurch this year.
The five-bedroom, two-bathroom home was bought by a Canterbury family, who had been looking for a year for their next home, OneRoof reported.
They fought off four other local buyers in Harcourts Gold’s auction room, including two who actively bid on it.
A vendor bid of $2.5 million opened the auction, which went up in mainly $25,000 to $50,000 increments.
Harcourts Gold auctioneer Mark Morrison said once the home was announced on the market at $3.8m, just two buyers battled it out.
The sale price exceeded the vendors’ expectations by $200,000.
“The bids were relatively large and strong,” Morrison told OneRoof.
The $4m sale price topped Strowan’s previous record price of $3.76 million, paid at auction last November for a 1920s home on Normans Rd.
Morrison told OneRoof the Halton St house was a standout.
“It’s the sort of home that pops up on the market and buyers go, ‘Jeez, we’ve got to secure this’. That sort of home you jump on.”
Harcourts Holmwood agent Kathryn Picton-Warlow had been working with the buyers for 12 months, searching for the ideal family home.
The buyers were moving from the country into the city and were looking for a home with space, which Halton St offered.
The swimming pool and tennis court were also big drawcards.
The same property in neighbouring Fendalton, she said, would cost about $6m.
“They just really valued having a sense of space and larger land,” she said.
“They were happy to pay up for it too because they knew the values and just really liked the positioning, the northwest facing section – just a lovely aspect to it.”
Harcourts Gold listing agent Cameron Bailey said the sale showed properties with good landholdings were hard to beat.
“You can’t beat big land is what it tells me. It pulled people out of the woodwork. The land protects your future values really,” he told OneRoof.
“It’s always been the way. Land goes up in value, buildings depreciate so the more land you’ve got the better off you are, and the more land you’ve got the easier it is for people to substantiate the price.”
Bailey said properties at the higher end of the market were slower to sell than those priced between $600,000 and $1.5m, but “good properties like Halton St were always busy”.
The owners were selling because their kids had left home and they were downsizing.
“It’s the sort of property you buy for 10 to 15 years while your kids are at that age and when your kids leave you downsize,” he said.
