An east Auckland home transformed into an extravaganza of Italian design has sold.
The Bayleys agent Jenny Benoy, who marketed the property five-bedroom property at Half Moon Rise in Half Moon Bay with Lawrence Liew, confirmed the sale, which records show was made in December, but was unable to comment further on the buyer or price until it settles later this year.
It is followed this month by the sales of two other luxury properties in east Auckland for multi-millions of dollars, possibly eight figures. Bayleys agent, Angela Rudling, who collaborated with Michael Chi to market the properties, could not reveal the prices until they settle next month but said they were “extremely high value, both record-breaking for their areas.”
At the time she was selling the Half Moon Rise house, Benoy told OneRoof that the 420sqm, art-filled house was so unique that its CV [of $3.6m] was meaningless for determining price.
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“It will be a very specific buyer,” she said, adding that only qualified people were being shown through the house.
The ordinary 1990s house Benoy sold to luxury car dealer Ivan Han and his wife Rachel in 2014 for $2.05m is unrecognisable today, she said.
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“The last owners would be blown away, nobody would have imagined.”
Ivan Han put his business, importing expensive Italian cars such as Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini to sell to rich listers, on hold to project manage the two-year rebuild of his family home.
The glamorous makeover of the house on Half Moon Rise, Half Moon Bay, took nearly two years. Photo / Supplied
The house includes custom furniture and fixtures imported from Europe. Photo / Supplied
He estimates he spent at least $1m on renovating the house which sits on an elevated site with views to the Half Moon Bay Marina and Rangitoto. Only the classical Italian-style swimming pool and tiled patio, along with dramatic palm trees were left untouched.
The Hans decided the clean lines of the original house lent it to a flamboyant modern Italian design, with a touch of Hollywood glamour, and used the in-house interior designers of luxury custom furniture company Boco do Lobo, based in Portugal, Paris and Milan, to design the top-to-toe makeover.
When local builders and developers told him the luxury design finishes were too hard to do, Han imported his own furniture and materials and located local craftsmen to do the fit-out.
“We didn’t move any walls or do structural things, it was mainly design,” Han earlier told OneRoof.
The Italian-style pool and tropical gardens. Photo / Supplied
Custom cabinets were designed for the house. Photo / Supplied
“It was hard to manage, but if they didn’t have the colour or the size or design, we designed it ourselves.”
The Hans’ glitzy palette included marble and marble-look tiles, oak parquet, high gloss ebony and walnut, brass bathroom fixtures and kitchen featuring a brass-wrapped island and rare Chinese Phoebe zhennan wood to meet the Italian glamour brief. The couple lived in the house after covid, but are now planning to relocate to Japan.
Bayleys’ Angela Rudling said that there are still buyers in the top end price range for the right property in the eastern beach suburbs.
“We are very proud to be still dealing with high end buyers, vendors are prepared to invest in significant marketing campaigns. We see impeccably presented properties are bringing out good buyers, people with $5m or $6m budgets, even eight figures to spend.”
Rudling added that she and Chi are about to list a huge property in the area which is likely to fetch at least $15m, and says there will be huge interest from buyers with budgets at that price point.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Half Moon Bay
