Owner Wants $500,000 For This 'Affordable Entry' Home

A prefab-style house is for sale with a price tag of more than half a million dollars - almost three times its most recent sale price.

The "cosy", 50sq m house at 35b Rollerson St in Papakura sits on a cross-lease section and is described as "the ultimate in easy-care living".

The current owner, Ross Westgate, purchased the property for $172,000 in 2006 and is now seeking inquiries over $549,000 - almost two-and-a-half times the $225,000 CV.

It is the first of several investment properties he plans to sell as he and his family look to move to South Waikato within the next year.

He is selling the house privately on Trade Me under the heading "Affordable Entry - Nest or Invest".

The rectangular-shaped cabin is on a rear section of about 400sq m, has two bedrooms, a laundry and is described as having a light and sunny open plan living/dining area.

Alongside a deck and easy-care garden, other features listed include security screen doors, locks on windows and an alarm system.

The property is being marketed at investors, retirees or first-home buyers and Mr Westgate said he would look at all offers.

"We want to get the best money we can, but we will look at offers probably below that ($549,000) as well."

He said it was the first house he bought in Auckland. He had lived in it for three years before renting it out.

"The house was built on-site but it is like a prefab. Probably if you wanted to you could lift it off. I always thought if we stayed in Auckland we could lift it off and put it on a beach section and build a house there but we never got around to doing that."

Auckland mortgage broker Bruce Patten thought the owner may have been a bit over optimistic with his pricing, but said most of the property's value was in the land.

"It's still typical of the Auckland housing market ... Relatively speaking you don't get too many houses for that price around the place anyway. It's probably not a long way around from being accurate. I haven't seen too many that are that basic."

At $549,000 the price was on the cusp of the $550,000 limit for Auckland buyers wanting to access Housing New Zealand's KiwiSaver First Home Withdrawal.

- NZ Herald