A heritage home in Auckland's Parnell has sold at auction for $4.18 million, with the buyers snapping at the same time a mural by one of the country's most celebrated artists.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Linda Galbraith, who marketed the four-bedroom 1920s build house on Takutai Street, said the buyers loved the mural and were calling in experts to preserve it.
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The three-level, super-colourful mural by Michael Smither sits in the stairwell of the house and depicts an underwater paradise, complete with coral, seaweed, and a myriad of other aquatic life.
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The home’s previous owners, who were in the publishing business, were close friends Smither who would stay with them during regular visits from New Plymouth, and over a number of years, in the 1970s, the mural took shape.
Richard Thomson, director at International Art Centre, whose gallery sold Smither’s most expensive work, told OneRoof last month, when the house was on the market, that valuing the mural was a bit tricky.
The 1920s house on Takutai Street was built by a WWI bomber pilot. Photo / Supplied
“Michael Smither’s work is the most expensive, by a living artist, sold at auction in New Zealand. His Sea Wall and Kingfisher fetched $340,000 in 2019,” he said.
“If these panels were individual paintings, their value would exceed $1 million.”
Galbraith adds: “I think the Michael Smither mural is especially fascinating because it represents what was a very arty time in Parnell in the 1970s, when lots of creative people lived in, or passed through the suburb, and left little pieces of themselves behind.”
Galbraith says the top end of the market is strong right now. She sold another immaculate four-bedroom family home on Stirling Street, in Remuera, for $4.945m.
Smither now works from his beach house Otama, on the Coromandel Peninsula. Photo / File
“There are so many cash buyers with over $5m looking in the central locations. There’s a huge gap in the $3m to $5m market.
“We’re just severely lacking in stock. A property I listed this week went live at 7pm, and had phone calls from overseas by 9.30pm, I think it will go for north of $5m,” she says.
People are prepared to pay this money because they’re investing in their future planning and are likely to hold these properties for 25 to 30 years.
“The people selling those homes are looking for a two-bedroom lock and leave property between $1.7m and $2.3m. But they have to have character or some kind of x-factor and a lot is to do with position.”
