If you’re searching for the sort of big stately home that’s unaffordable in the larger cities, Napier could be the place to relocate to.
A number of big homes in and around the prestigious suburb of Bluff Hill in the Hawke’s Bay city are on the market and one is 14 Elizabeth Road, a historic 1890s homestead known as Waimarie, which was built for Henry Hill, a New Zealand educationalist and a former mayor of Napier.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom house, which has a 2020 RV of $1.43 million, is said to have been a hub of the Napier social scene with many a garden party held there.
Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, describes Hill as: “… a tall, well-built man who tended to speak very loudly” and the Bayleys’ marketing describes how the road in front of the house, and also part of the gardens, were lost down the cliff to the road below during the 1931 earthquake which devastated much of the town.
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The house was bought in 1933 by Gerhard Husheer, the founder and managing director of the National Tobacco Company, who remodelled and enlarged it with input from architect Louis Hay, who was well-known around Napier for his art deco designs after the earthquake.
Bayleys agent Angela Jameson, who is marketing the property, says interest in homes like this often come from people in Wellington and Auckland who can buy more for their money in Napier.
But even though the homes are large, it’s not always families who buy them. Jameson says she has come across people of downsizer-age who still want a big house so family and friends can come to stay.
There is also interest, however, from people who can now work remotely, even if that means getting on a plane to Auckland once a week and splitting their time between work and home.
“That has broadened our base of buyers for people who don’t have to live where they’re working.”
Jameson says Waimarie, which has ocean and city views, is a gracious home which flows well between the spaces and is very liveable.
1 Seaview Terrace, a historic villa in Bluff Hill with water views, is on the market for sale. Photo / Supplied
A four-bedroom home on a 3429sqm section at 35 Goldsmith Road, in Hospital Hill, Napier. Photo / Supplied
Neal Anderson, also from Bayleys, is selling several other big old villas in the high echelon area, saying a large percentage of such homes are owned by mature couples whose children have fled the nest.
“Traditionally, a lot of them come on in the spring, and with Covid and the like a lot of people have been in these houses and thinking about lifestyle, how they live, those sorts of things, and I think a lot of people are just making decisions about lifestyle choice.”
Anderson has on the market 1 Seaview Terrace, in Bluff Hill, which has five bedrooms, two bathrooms, panoramic views and an RV of just over $1m.
The home was built in the 1880s “to provide stately dress-circle accommodation above the CBD”.
He is also selling 35 Goldsmith Road, in nearby Hospital Hill, and another big home in Bluff Hill, 16 Brewster Street, which is described as having grandstand views over the city to the ocean and Cape Kidnappers.
Anderson says high caliber homes can take a little longer to sell because they are in a higher price bracket, which for big homes on Bluff Hill can be in the $1.5m to $2m and up bracket.
But the good news is Auckland and Wellington buyers are coming back into the market after Wellington especially took a big hit price-wise.
Anderson thinks those buyers have come to terms with their property not fetching as much as they had hoped and are getting on with their lives and possible their plans to relocate to somewhere like Napier.
While such big homes are popular among a certain group of buyers, Taradale, a suburb to the south of the city, is the most searched, Anderson says, and is popular for its good schools, good infrastructure and parks and reserves.
16 Brewster Street, in Bluff Hill, is a character villa that looks out to Cape Kidnappers. Photo / Supplied
A four-bedroom brick and tile home in Taradale, Napier, recently sold for $800,000-plus. Photo / Supplied
“I sell a lot in Taradale which is my other end of the scale that I do and you’re finding a lot of gentrification over there.”
He recently sold a brick and tile home on Hetley Crescent, in Taradale, for more than $800,000, saying the property had been owned by an elderly lady who had lived there for nearly 30 years but had a lot of potential for value to be added.
Anderson also says apartments are a growing market for downsizers in Napier with a lot of building going on in Ahuriri in particular.
But there is also plenty of upsizing underway, he thinks as a flow-on effect from Covid.
“There were families in a house and they were all stuck together for periods of time and they thought this house is just too small for us, it doesn’t work for us, we want something bigger or we want a lifestyle property.
“Then you’ve got a couple who might be living in a five-bedroom villa on the hill and they’ve started to think, ‘well, really, what are we living in this great big house for?’.”
