Flood-damaged $1 home stuns with staggering six-figure sale

The owners of a flood-damaged home that could have sold for less than one dollar have pocketed a surprise windfall.

The two-bedroom property in Karangahake, in New Zealand’s Waikato region, went under the hammer with a NZ$1 ($0.84) reserve.

The residence had been affected by severe flooding in February, destroying a previous NZ$330,000 ($276,005) sale just weeks before settlement.

The owners were forced back to square one after the summer storms sent a nearby river over its banks, tearing through the home.

The house was later stripped back during insurance remediation, leaving it without a kitchen or bathroom before being offered for sale on an “as is, where is” basis.

Instead of a bargain-basement sale, the auction drew 31 registered bidders and stretched across 56 tense bids before a Hamilton buyer secured the property.

Once bidding climbed beyond NZ$125,000 ($104,547), the contest heated up between the two buyers before the hammer eventually fell at an astounding NZ$186,000 ($155,566).

The successful bidder is understood to be planning to renovate the cottage before renting it out.

Harcourts agent and auctioneer Steven Bridson told OneRoof the result of the auction went better than they could ever have expected.

Bridson said the vendors were overcome with emotion after learning the final price, with the combination of auction proceeds and insurance payout leaving them in almost the same financial position they would have been in had the original sale gone ahead.

“There were instant tears of joy that it’s all over,” he said.

The property had initially found a buyer last November – selling for almost NZ$100,000 below its initial asking price -before the summer floodwaters tore through the home and voided the deal.

While the council later deemed the property safe to occupy following remedial work, but the owners decided the flood risk was too great to rebuild and instead chose to sell the 1.3-hectare property in its damaged state.