– Alex Walls is selling her off-grid home in Beach Haven, designed with her husband Corban.
– The home took four years to build and features concrete, stone, and glass with bush and sea views.
– Harcourts agents expect the property to break suburb records.
Alex Walls has loved it, but now she’s listing it. The Kiwi designer, who has taken on the Kirstie Allsopp role in the New Zealand version of the hit real estate show Love It Or List It, has decided to sell the multimillion-dollar home she and her husband laboured over four years to get absolutely right.
Her off-grid home at 6 Island Bay Road, in Beach Haven, is a real testament to her own skills and the engineering feats of her husband, Corban.
The couple, who shot to fame when they won the third season of The Block NZ, bought the bushside plot of land on Island Bay Road in 2015, just after they’d finished The Block. But it took them four stressful years to build the three-bedroom dream home that sits there now.
The two-storey concrete, stone and glass building was designed with their friend, architect Fraser Horton and detailed, to the last centimetre, by Corban and their building crew, Build Strong.
The Walls meticulously crafted their multimillion-dollar home over four years. Photo / Supplied
The three-bedroom home opens to a swimming pool and spa, overlooking native bush. Photo / Supplied
It took two long years before they could even bring in the diggers. “The intention was to build something quick-smart and get into it to have our family,” Alex told OneRoof. But the couple had still not broken ground by the time their son Austen was born in September 2016, and when they finally moved in, their second child, Goldie, was six months old.
“Corban was adamant that he wanted to build a house that was beyond council minimum standards, a home that was entirely built for natural disasters like earthquakes, and self-sufficient as well,” Alex told OneRoof, noting that the consent process took two years.
She admits the four-year stretch meant she was able to refine the decor many times over.
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“We ended up designing on designing on designing. The more time we had to review, the more exceptional the design,” she said.
“If we’d tried to do that in a hurry, we wouldn’t have got that detail,” she said.
The upper floor of the house has two living spaces and opens to the swimming pool and play yard on one side and a dining deck on the other. Downstairs are three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a hidden laundry, plus a garage. A floating stair, designed by Corban, joins the two levels.
Corban crafted custom features like the floating stairs and the travertine stone vanities in the bathroom. Photo / Supplied
The principal bedroom overlooks the bush and water. Photo / Supplied
“Everything we’ve used is very organic, based on what’s outside. It’s like you are in another land, it is so calm. Every native bird possible makes its way through our property,” Alex said. Even their shower opens to the bush views.
The couple is selling up to move north to Orewa. It was a hard decision to make, though: “Our family lifestyle, if we could design it, would be outdoors to give our kids a traditional childhood, and a like-minded community,” Alex said.
“We’re going to be building again, but it’s an easier site and I’ve already told Corban he’s not allowed to do such custom stuff on this one.
“There are always new beginnings, but it is going to be very hard to say goodbye. It was a really hard call for us; it is such a perfect place for us as a family. It is like therapy being in that home.”
Harcourts agents Ben Gibson and Debs Wallace, who are marketing the property, could not comment on the likely price but did think it would break suburb records.
“We are happy to say this will be a record-breaking price due to the quality and brilliance of the build,” Wallace told OneRoof. Records show the top price for the suburb is just over $2.6m.
Gibson, who is friends with the couple, added: “I had the privilege of visiting their site over the four years from when they first bought the land to when they finally moved in. It was a huge effort, and nothing was ever left to chance.”
– 6 Island Bay Road, Beach Haven, Auckland, goes to auction on September 25