– A six-bedroom mansion at 80 Victoria Avenue, Remuera, is on sale for $18 million.
– The 629sqm house, designed by Gummer and Ford in 1933, sits on a 6731sqm section.
– Agent Terry King highlights its classical architecture and potential for modernisation and land sale.
A six-bedroom mansion designed by one of New Zealand’s revered classical architects has hit the market for sale for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Kings of Remuera listing agent Terry King said the legacy home at 80 Victoria Avenue, in Remuera, was, at $18 million, the “best priced property on the market”.
“It is unique, because it has the largest single piece of land available in the Remuera area,” he told OneRoof. “It is a house in the country, in the city.”
The house was built in 1933 and still has its original features. From the 1950s to 1987, it was owned by the Sisters of St Joseph Cluny. Photo / Supplied
The grounds are over 6700sqm, and lead from the house and pool down to a tennis court. Photo / Supplied
The 629sqm house, which has an RV of $21m, was designed in 1933 by Gummer and Ford for a prominent Auckland family and sits on a 6731sqm section – one of the largest available on Remuera’s premier street.
The original owners bequeathed the house and their estate to the Sisters of St Joseph Cluny, who recently sold the neighbouring estate for $10.7m.
King told OneRoof that his vendors took on 80 Victoria Avenue in 1987 after receiving a surprise phone call from the order’s mother superior. They lived nearby and knew the nuns well. “The mother superior said, ‘I think you should buy our house, it would be perfect for your family.’ She had already worked out where everyone would go because she knew all the children,” King said.
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“Everything had been wonderfully maintained, the tennis court, the rolling lawns. The kids thought it was the most wonderful experience, as they’d played there and now it was theirs.
“If I still had my children at home, I would buy this house, and I would have such fun decorating it.”
King said the house was rooted in classical English architecture, noting that it even had servants’ stairs. He counted eight working fireplaces and highlighted the original wood panels and joinery, the stained-glass windows and steel French doors.
Looking $32m is Terry King’s listing at 532 Remuera Road, in Remuera. Photo / Supplied
“Apart from a new kitchen, nothing has been altered since the time it was built. It still has such a wonderful family feel. The vendors will miss it horribly,” King said.
The agent, who is showing the property only to qualified buyers, said a buyer might want to modernise and upgrade the house’s finishes and carve off some of the land to sell without spoiling the setting or the original house.
“People have to like this architecture and value that, an Anglophile or someone who likes House and Garden and Interiors magazine,” he said, adding that there is already definite interest from the first buyer he showed through the house last week.
King said his company’s strategy of pricing listings had resulted in some fast sales this year. Last month, he sold a four-bedroom 1920s house on Arney Crescent, in Remuera, in just two days for its asking price of $6.25m. “We had four people through, and the people bought it the same day they saw it, cash unconditional,” he said.
Back on the market after a refresh is 33 Arney Crescent, in Remuera. Photo / Supplied
A Home of the Year winner at 60 Kelvin Road is courting fans of modern architecture. Photo / Supplied
“When you put a price on it, you only get people who have that amount of money. Whereas most people going to an auction these days are going to see how cheaply they can buy.”
King and his wife and business partner, Diana, are also selling 900sqm, five-bedroom Roy Binney-designed house on Remuera Road. That property has a price tag of $32m and is the most expensive property for sale in the suburb.
Also hoping to hook a wealthy buyer is a five-bedroom Georgian-style mansion being sold by entrepreneur Diane Foreman.
Barfoot & Thompson listing agent James Doole said Foreman had redecorated 33 Arney Crescent since pulling it from the open market earlier this year.
Foreman told OneRoof last year that the house was too big for her and her husband, broadcaster Paul Henry.
“We always thought that it would be our forever home, but it got to the stage where Paul and I were texting each other and ringing to find each other in the house. We just thought this is so silly,” she said.
And for lovers of modern architecture, Ray White agent John Lantz has a four-bedroom house designed by architect Patrick Clifford for sale.
The striking concrete, timber, and glass house at 60 Kelvin Road, Remuera, won Home of the Year in 1996, and Lantz said the striking house was still an “architectural experience.”