Property

Million-dollar price tag - no big deal

The villa in one of Auckland's leafiest inner-city streets had an illegal balcony, a broken downstairs window and a rickety bath which looked in danger of falling through the top floor.

Sunday, January 02nd 2005

True, there was one big bedroom and two smaller ones, warm wooden interiors and some pastel paintwork, but the beauty was pocked with unpolished age and disrepair.

A couple - we will call them Bob and Jane - popped by on their way home and had a voyeuristic nosy around, for fun, and because they, like most other New Zealanders, are obsessed with property.

They poked around the corners and wandered up the stairs which creaked, and then - suddenly - a cry from below.

"Watch the stairwell," came the agent's urgent call: "I'm not sure how solid it is."

"Oh," commented Jane as she returned to safe floor level and noted the grime around the pokey toilet. "So you'd be expecting around three-quarters of a million for this then?"

"Well," remarked the real estate agent, who would later send Bob and Jane an unsolicited Christmas card, "actually, I'm hoping it'll go for more than that."

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Heartland Bank - Online 6.69
SBS FirstHome Combo 6.74
Wairarapa Building Society 6.95
Unity 6.99
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 7.04
ICBC 7.05
China Construction Bank 7.09
BNZ - Classic 7.24
ASB Bank 7.24
ANZ Special 7.24
TSB Special 7.24
Unity First Home Buyer special 6.45
Heartland Bank - Online 6.45
China Construction Bank 6.75
TSB Special 6.75
ICBC 6.75
ANZ Special 6.79
ASB Bank 6.79
AIA - Go Home Loans 6.79
Kiwibank Special 6.79
BNZ - Classic 6.79
Unity 6.79
Westpac Special 6.39
China Construction Bank 6.40
ICBC 6.49
SBS Bank Special 6.55
Kiwibank Special 6.55
BNZ - Classic 6.55
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 6.55
ASB Bank 6.55
AIA - Go Home Loans 6.55
TSB Special 6.59
Kainga Ora 6.99
SBS FirstHome Combo 6.19
AIA - Back My Build 6.19
ANZ Blueprint to Build 7.39
Credit Union Auckland 7.70
ICBC 7.85
Heartland Bank - Online 7.99
Pepper Money Essential 8.29
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 8.40
Co-operative Bank - Standard 8.40
First Credit Union Standard 8.50
Kiwibank 8.50

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