One of Auckland’s leading real estate agents is selling her bach in the rich-lister beach town of Omaha.
Ray White Epsom and Matakana-Omaha business co-owner Heather Walton and her husband Mark Bycroft bought the then three-bedroom home on Tio Lane two years ago as a post-lockdown project.
The couple, who love doing up houses, spotted the potential in the two-storey house, which fronts the reserve, and set about turning it into a luxury beach home.
They had thought the house was going to be their last renovation project but they have put it on the market while they scout out for another do-up.
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“We’ve never bought anything that we haven’t renovated. It’s in our veins,” Walton said of their hobby.
“We’re both creative, that’s what Mark did before too. Mark sees things with a house that other people don’t, but every house is not a cookie cutter.”
Walton said that within two days of moving into the Tio Lane home, "the skip arrived and the kitchen was in the bin. I do take a risk and my confidence has grown, I can make decisions really quickly – in two minutes, if I’m busy.”
She said there was a surprising amount to do to the ten-year-old house, but the location is top-drawer Omaha. The couple paid $3.725 million two years ago for the house, and it now has a CV of $4.45m.
Walton, who recently published her autobiography, Rags to Riches to Real Me, which she hopes will inspire other women to recover from hard knocks, said that top of the couple’s renovation list is usually the kitchen, as for beachside living it is the hub of the home. She has a trusted roster of suppliers such as Matakana Kitchens on speed dial for the kitchen cabinetry, wardrobe and bedroom joinery, and for this house was impressed with the finishing on details like the slatted finish and the leather-finished Dekton bench tops.
Ray White Epsom and Matakana-Omaha business co-owner Heather Walton: “We’ve never bought anything that we haven’t renovated. It’s in our veins.” Photo / Fiona Goodall
Living spaces on the upper floor have the in-demand sea and dune views and the house has a walking track to the beach. Photo / Supplied
Stylish new bathrooms are also near the top of the Walton-Bycroft makeover.
She jokes that her interior designer, who helps source materials, was ready to fire her for her frequent repeat of concrete floor tiles (instead, Tio Lane has a pale wood parquet) and her fondness for barn doors.
As well as replacing the old kitchen, Walton and Bycroft removed a scullery that blocked views through the house of the sea and dunes on one side, the farmland on the other, reconfigured an odd storage corridor into a bunk room opening off the media room to make a teen-friendly space, replaced dusty lawn with artificial turf that includes a putting green and spa pool, and upgraded the decks for outdoor entertaining.
Walton’s teenage son Harrison was pulled in to shift tons of rocks for the landscaping that separates the house from the native-planted dunes and track to the beach.
The house already had double-glazing (“it’s a real thing for people, and I’ll appraise a house accordingly,” Walton said) so just needed upgraded heat pumps and “the biggest fireplace we could find.”
Within two weeks the old kitchen and a view-blocking scullery was out, replaced with a hand-made one from Matakana Kitchens. Photo / Supplied
The upper floor living area has views of the beach on one side and farmland on the other. Photo / Supplied
Walton said knowing what is in high demand for holidaying families helps drive the couple’s decision-making. Although this is the family’s permanent home, because of frequent trips to their Auckland office, Walton and Bycroft have made the house lock-up-and-leave to suit the more typical holiday market.
She said buyers now want a completed project and are prepared to pay not to have to do it themselves.
“Everyone’s a little wary of construction costs. We just did a bathroom in the city house and in two years since we last did one, the cost had literally doubled. A $30,000 project now would look more like $60,000 or $70,000. People would prefer to know the final cost.”
However, there are still buyers who love a building project, so that is where land-only sales come in.
The owners reconfigured an odd storage corridor into a bunk room opening off the media room to make a teen-friendly space. Photo / Supplied
Buyers will renovate a three-bedroom home on 17 Ruby Cove because of its 'rare as a unicorn' one back from the beach location and a CV of $2.8m. Photo / Supplied
Walton said that she has just had estimates through to help buyers do the sums on a 2557sqm site near the beach at Point Wells’ Sandpiper Avenue that she is marketing with Rod Cheeseman.
“A basic build for a Landmark or Signature home would cost about $7000 per square metre, so you’d be all in for a 300sqm house around $2m. [For] a top architect home at Tara Iti [golf resort] people are paying up to $20,000 per sqm.”
Walton said buyers are interested in a project if the location is unbeatable. A three-bedroom 150sqm home on 17 Ruby Cove, one back from the beach, needs “everything doing to it” but with a CV of just $2.8m and the 612sqm site only 20m from direct beach access “it’s location, location, location. This is rare as a unicorn,” Walton’s marketing says. The listing had a tender closing Tuesday.
“We would never buy something that doesn’t need work, but not everyone is as quick as we are to make decisions,” said Walton.
“We always do these to keep, it’s never our intention to sell.”
