The property was auctioned with a $1 reserve and sold for $375,000.

Yes, there was a slip that knocked this red-stickered house off its foundations – the skew is not the camera – but that didn’t stop it from being a very hot property over the weekend.

The house, located in a prime waterfront position in Thornton Bay on the Thames Coast Rd, was auctioned with a $1 reserve on Saturday.

Harcourts Listing agent Steven Bridson says the vendors were quite prepared to let the property go for $1 or whatever.

As it happened, bidding started at $2, and the person who made that bid ended up buying the house, paying $375,000 for the property.

"The sold sticker has gone up. The slip is visible behind the house, which was sold as is, where is, says Steven.

“We had 43 bidders; 26 were online, seven on the phone and 10 in the room, everyone tried to bid, but the price jumped too quickly for some of them. It quickly went up to $350,000, but that last $25,000 was fought hard between three bidders.”

“Many times, I was about to bring down the hammer, and there would be another bid. One person was going up in small increments, while another was taking big jumps. There were a few laughs – and 70 people in the room. Both the vendors and buyer were happy.”

The new owners are Jono and Kathy Peet, who can not believe they were able to get the property for $375,000.

 “We were looking for a property on that side of the peninsula and that is one of our favourite beaches,” says Jono Peet.

“Everything is priced way out of our league. But we talked to Steven and thought we’d give it a go and we succeeded.”
“We will be taking baby steps. The plan is to get in and demolish the house, and clear the slip away. That will create space for a caravan for a couple of years.”

There is also work to be done by the local council in respect of stabilising the road on the cliff, says Jono.
“We will all work together to get it sorted. And once that’s done we will think about putting a small holiday home or retirement home on there.”

The former owner Dennis Raines, 95, who lived in the house at the moment of the flooding,  is now living in a unit near Thames Hospital.
”There was a positive spin-off. The family were trying to get him to leave the old house and come into town. The property needed a lot of maintenance, and it was getting a bit much,” says Harcourts Listing agent Steven Bridson.

Raines slept through the catastrophe happening around him during the Auckland Anniversary floods he was rescued by a handyman who came to check on him.

"Fortunately Dennis was sleeping at the front of the house and Civil Defence and police were good at evacuating him. The landslips only affected the rear of the house, but of course, the pressure of it did push it off the foundations - hence the red sticker,” says his son Clive.

"He's relatively happy where he is now. I think the stress, and the inability to pay to rebuild, really didn't give him any options."

The property held a lot of appeal says Clive Raines "It's a beautiful bay, it's a beachfront property. It's around 807 square metres. it potentially is going to be a bargain for someone, but it's attracted a lot of interest, and we'll go with what the market decides.”

- Stuff