Although rain started falling on the crowd that had gathered for the auction of a piece of industrial land with a reserve price of just $1 yesterday, it did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the bidders for what had been pitched as Wairarapa’s real estate “deal of the century”.
The auction, held at Poplars Business Park’s Sugar Café, was for an already titled 2094m2 piece of industrial land located at the park development on Masterton’s Ngaumutawa Rd, and was presided over by auctioneer Sabine Davidson.
At the outset, Davidson noted that the most frequently asked question about the auction had been “What’s the catch?” and admitted there was one: the $1 reserve did not include gst.
In the event, however, the land went for a great deal more.
Bidding started at $1, followed by $2 and then $3, prompting Davidson to suggest bidders add “some zeroes on the back”.
The next bid was for $1000, after which they went up in leaps of $10,000, briefly plateauing at $50,000 before surging to $100,000.
The auction was largely a tussle between two bidders and almost finished on $220,000 before a counter bid of $230,000 on the third call kept things moving.
A new bidder who entered proceedings at $250,000 almost won the day but was countered by an offer of $1000 more.
Bids then crept up a few thousand dollars at a time because the bidder who had started the ball rolling with an offer of $1 secured the property for $260,000.
The successful purchaser, who preferred to remain anonymous, was clearly chuffed by the price he paid for the property, which he said he didn’t have any specific plans for yet.
“We’ll wait until after Christmas before we make any decisions,” he said.
Tremains’ Bevan Saywell, who was handling the sale, said the vendor – who had bought the land a year ago and, having found that another section they owned at the site had satisfied their needs, “decided to see what value the market puts on the property” – was “really happy” with the outcome.
“It was a good outcome all ‘round,” he said. “It worked!”
