Mortgagee sale of half-completed cliff-top house with $5.25m CV

A semi-completed house on the cliffs above one of Auckland's top beaches is on the market as a mortgagee sale.

The three-bedroom bungalow, which sits on 531sqm of land at 84a Vauxhall Road, in Devonport, has a 2021 CV of $5.25 million, overlooks Cheltenham Beach and goes to auction on December 14.

What is for sale is a shell of a home, with even the ceilings removed, and bare corrugated iron on show.

It is the second high-profile mortgagee sale to hit the market in recent months, with a Grand Designs-style mansion in St Marys Bay, on the other side of the harbour, appearing to sell for an undisclosed price last month.

The OneRoof listing for the Vauxhall Road property, which is being marketed by Barfoot & Thompson agents Philip Davis and Ari Tidyman, notes that buyers can either “finish the current project” or create their “own waterfront paradise”.

According to the listing, the original bungalow was “under renovation with plans to be extensively upgraded with spacious open-plan living, outdoor decks and large basement area”.

It states that, according to the mortgagor, “major foundations and cliff stabilisation have been completed”.

The Devonport property sits next to some of the most valuable pieces of real estate on Auckland's North Shore. Photo / Supplied

The house is half-completed. Photo / Supplied

The previous listings agents had told OneRoof in May that it had been hard to put a value on the home because it was in an incomplete state, but said “the property next door, on 2555sqm, has a rating valuation of $13.2m”.

The property was owned by a local developer Steve Barrett. According to a 2016 report in the Devonport Flagstaff newspaper, his plans for the home involved turning the original one-storey, hipped-roof bungalow into a three-level five-bedroom, three-bathroom house, with a media game room, cellar bar, library and scullery.

Barrett's company, a boutique construction firm specialising in high specification architectural projects, is marked on the company's website as being located at 84A Vauxhall Road.

Several neighbours told OneRoof this week that significant building work on the house had stopped some time ago, although they had seen Barrett at the site from time to time.

Davis told OneRoof he couldn’t comment on the sale. “It’s a sensitive situation,” he said.

The listing photos show evidence of the construction work at the site. Photo / Supplied

OneRoof contacted Barrett for comment, but had yet to hear back from him.

Barrett told the New Zealand Herald soon after he purchased the property that he had commissioned major engineering works on the cliff site. “We cleaned up all the old rock and loose rock off the cliff,” he said of the work.

The article noted that 36 horizontal 6m deep soil anchor rods had been driven into the face and nine rods had been inserted from above.

Barrett told the Herald that he bought “the land and didn't want to lose any of it”.

Bayleys agent Victoria Bidwell, who had the Vauxhall listing earlier this year but is not involved in the current mortgagee sale, told OneRoof this week that the amount of interest in the property during the time she had it on the market reflected the property’s stunning location.

“In my opinion if someone wants to live in the property and finish it to their own spec, they will end up with a beautiful home.” She said the owners had put “their heart and soul into it and I would like to see them get a good result”.