Last week a prestige property in Fendalton sold at auction on that uninsured basis for $2.4 million - more than $600,000 above its RV.
Bayleys agents Steve and Belinda Ellis, who marketed the four-bedroom property, say it sold to a buyer who is a savvy repairer of “as is where is” properties.
"There are still a lot of properties that haven't settled with EQC and are still coming to market," says Steve.
"There are still easily 10 a month for sale, at price points anywhere between $500,000 and $3m."
The couple says six buyers, some from repair companies experienced in post-earthquake fix-ups, registered to bid.
After an opening bid of $1.8m, the Clyde Road home then went to negotiations and sold for $2.4m.
“I’m not sure what they are going to do but there were a few people in the room who would repair and on-sell, some keep it as investment and landbank it or rent it in the future.
"But what they do with it will depend on the market,” Belinda said.
"They put a lot of heart and soul into it and are very happy their hard work won’t be pulled down, as a lot of people looking at the size of the site could have bowled the house down and build a new home,” Belinda said.
Once the levels of the house were fixed, it could sell for over $3m, she added.
“The minute you repair it, the value goes up.”
The couple says a lot of people in Canterbury have been buying ‘as is where is’ properties and tenanting them out without insurance or repairing them to a certain level to secure insurance.
“Someone could live in there very happily, it is a warm and a beautiful home to live in and it is very hard to see the damage, you just don’t see how anything can be wrong with it,” Belinda said.
Meanwhile, a much newer but smaller property south of Christchurch sold under the hammer for $745,000, with bidding starting at $600,000.
The 105 sqm home marketed by Bayleys’ Adam Hazelwood and Kurt Findley sits on a 1012sqm site in Huntsbury and had a rating valuation of $450,000.
