The childhood home of two of New Zealand’s most famous musicians is on the market for sale. The pair of terraced houses at the corner of Parnell and Claybrook Roads, in Auckland, was the home of Mike and Geoff Chunn, founders of Kiwi rock band Split Enz.
Their parents, Yvonne and Jerry Chunn, had combined number 469 with number 471 next door to create one large family home, its Edwardian double-thick walls apparently making band practice much more tolerable for the neighbours.
The iconic terrace house at 469 Parnell Road, one of three, was once home to Split Enz band members Mike and Geoff Chunn. Photo / Supplied
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The current owner said she’d been told that had the advantage of being totally sound-proof.
“I never hear the neighbours, which explains why, when Split Enz used to practise their music here all those years ago, their neighbours reportedly never heard them either,” she said.
“In recent years I’ve actually crossed paths with Tim Finn from Split Enz. He would have spent countless hours practising with the Chunn brothers in and around what’s now my home.”
The terrace houses were built around 1910 in the grand elegant style of Sydney’s Paddington and inner city suburbs, but such houses are rare in Auckland’s older inner city suburbs.
The Edwardian home now has a new kitchen and scullery opening to the conservatory and courtyard. Photo / Supplied
The Chunns had knocked the two terraces into one family house, with the third terrace used for their professional rooms. The current owner has restored it two separate dwellings, and is now selling number 469.
OneRoof records show the pair of properties have a current ratings valuation of $3.05m, before the restoration to two homes and renovations.
Original features such as fireplaces and windows have been retained. Photo / Supplied
The owner’s renovations included a new kitchen and scullery, but retained the original separate rooms, Edwardian details and polished floors and the conservatory off the kitchen installed by the Chunns into the back courtyard. The property is being marketed by Ray White agents Lisa and Steve Stone for auction on February 23.
Lisa Stone told OneRoof: “The building is simply iconic. Everyone knows it – it’s part of the Parnell furniture. It’s just one of those really special properties that has everything.”
Bassist Mike Chunn joined university friends Tim Finn and Phil Judd in the early 1970s to form a band, then called Split Ends, bringing in Geoff on drums a year later.
The dining room opens to a conservatory and back courtyard. Photo / Supplied
The band went from “Buck-A-Head” concerts in the 1970s student circuit to full-on shows in concert halls complete with their signature-mad costumes, hairstyles, makeup and band-member Noel Crombie playing the spoons, producing ten Top Ten albums through the early 1980s. The band found success in Australia and the UK, and pioneered a VHS video album and music videos for each song, before breaking up in 1984.
Split Enz band member Neil Finn went on to form Crowded House and later brought in brother Tim Finn.
Neil also lived in the neighbourhood, selling his five bedroom villa, complete with recording studio for $3.8m in 2015.
