Buy a Rotorua apartment and the seller will throw in an office in downtown Auckland too

"Buy one, get one free" deals are nothing new, but it's an unusual way of selling real estate.

But that's the deal that's being offered in the sale of a Rotorua apartment (see photo above).

The one bedroom apartment with a car park is being auctioned by Ray White City Apartments on November 21.

Nothing unusual in that, but according to the property's listing page on the Ray White website,  "When you buy this apartment, our seller is giving away a free 30 square metre office space in the heart of New Zealand's other favourite tourist destination, Auckland's famous waterfront precinct."

It's a deal that's obviously designed to appeal to investors, or perhaps those looking for a different take on the traditional home and income.

The apartment has a floor area of 38 square metres, so it's compact, although there are many that are a lot smaller in Auckland.

And it's rented out at $330 a week and has provided its owner with a high level of occupancy.

So what's the catch?

The office space is in the Scene One apartment complex on Beach Road in Auckland's CBD, just around the corner from Britomart.

It's a great location, but Scene One is a leasehold complex.

The ground rent for the complex is reviewed every seven years and was last up for review in 2018, although the revised rent is yet to be finalised.

Currently the ground rent on the unit is $7368 a year, with rates and operating costs (the equivalent of body corporate fees) taking total outgoings on the unit to $10,391 a year.

But until the new ground rent is set, there's uncertainty over how much those outgoings will be over the next six years.

And the complex faces remediation issues, with costs yet to be finalised, creating more financial uncertainty.

And it's currently vacant, although its potential rent has been estimated at $380 to $400 a week.

So there's a bit to think about.

Dominic Worthington, the Ray White agent handling the sale, said he wanted to try a marketing approach that hadn't really been done before in this country.

But isn't it just another way of presenting a sale of two properties that are offered as a single lot?

Worthington says no, because the apartment has a declared reserve of $199,000 compared to its 2017 Rating Valuation of $209,000.

"So the office hasn't been capitalised into the reserve price at all," he said.

If the apartment sold for its Rating Valuation of $209,000 and continued to be rented at $330 a week, it would provide a gross rental yield of 8.2%.

The key to making a success of the deal will be in securing a tenant for the office as quickly as possible, because as long as it's vacant the owner is responsible for all of its outgoings with no income coming in from it.

Below: The Auckland office space being offered along with the Rotorua apartment.

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