The Auckland interior designer to the rich and famous has switched from swatches to sale and purchase agreements as he re-ignites a career in real estate with a listing for a multi-million-dollar property on Tawharanui Peninsula.
James Doole joined real estate agency Barfoot & Thompson’s Remuera office to work with a clientele he knows well in the blue-chip suburb.
But he’s also selling luxury lifestyle properties around Matakana, Ti Point and Tawharanui where he and his partner, former Ray White Ponsonby real estate agency owner Bryce Earwaker, have bought a country home overlooking the water. Earwaker also owns a resort on the Fijian island of Qamea which he completely restored 20 years ago.
“I’d had my real estate licence on hold, so I decided to go back to it,” Doole said, adding that Remuera was his first beat when he first started selling luxury real estate around the suburb over 14 years ago.
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"It is such a relationship-based job, so it's a really nice fit. It's a real synergy for buyers from Remuera moving back and forth to the Matakana region, and there's a natural fit between my interior design career and real estate."
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This time Doole’s joining the city’s largest agency. “I’ve always really liked the Barfoot & Thompson brand, it’s Auckland-wide and one big team, a family.”
Doole knows what appeals to his clients, with his design portfolio recently including the interiors for the luxury Victoria Lane apartments emerging on the corner of Victoria Avenue and Remuera Road – the penthouse is under contract for $17 million – and a slew of projects for rich-lister-turned-property-addict Diane Foreman.
Foreman once told OneRoof that her friend Doole topped her “black book of dreams” of skilled people for her projects, that included a revamp and resale of the Omaha home formerly owned by fashion designer Trelise Cooper that set a record for the beach town when it sold in October 2020 for $7.35m.
“James is absolutely amazing, we bounce things off each other and he project manages everything. He's more modern than me, he's young and funky. We'll have really good arguments about what shade of white to use,” Foreman said.
Doole’s own former home on the water at Victoria Avenue made news last year when it sold for $6.64m after being run as short-term rental for wealthy executives, charging up to $3500 a week. Doole had completely transformed the 1990s house, which featured in design magazines, before selling it in early 2019 for $5.68m.
Barfoot & Thompson agent James Doole says there is a synergy with his real estate business from working with rich-lister clients in his previous career as an interior designer. Photo / Supplied
The Bishop Lane estate looks over the harbour and Sandspit marina, and has its own jetty. Photo / Supplied
After a little over two months back in the real estate business Doole told OneRoof he has two sales under his belt: a new-build townhouse in Remuera and land in the prestigious Oystercatcher Lane in Point Wells, near Matakana, and is working on a couple of “super high-end” off-market deals.
The property he is marketing in the gated community of Bishop Hill, about 15 minutes out of Matakana on the Tawharanui Peninsula, will be one of the biggest of the year in the lifestyle belt around the desirable town.
The four-bedroom 363sqm house on a 2.17ha site at 310 Bishop Lane that has its own jetty across the harbour from the Sandspit marina is for sale by a tender closing July 20.
The Sumich-Chaplin designed estate, built in 2017, has separate bedroom wings for the owners and their children and grandchildren, a 25-metre pool and a private tennis court. The gardens were landscaped by award-winning designer Suzanne Turley, there is an upscale kitchen, lighting by ECC and a raft of tech underpinning the house for heating, lighting and security.
While Doole could not name a price for the property, which has a CV of $5.75m, he said he was “qualifying buyers above $12m”.
Luxury features include multiple living areas, outdoor fireplace and pizza oven, as well as a swimming pool and tennis court. Photo / Supplied
The home was designed by Sumich Chaplin Architects, with landscaping by Suzanne Turley as a multi-generational home. Photo / Supplied
That would be good buying compared to recent prices paid for lifestyle properties in the area. Buyers paid $13m in January last year for a former orchard on the water with a modest 1980s house on Point Wells Road, where they plan to build a family compound on the 4.42ha site. It had a CV of just $5.16m.
Later that year a five-bedroom cliff-top Hamptons-style home on 2.4ha on Tatham Road, Ti Point, fetched $10m, well above its $6.75m CV. Buyers who missed out on that property bought another 2.2ha property on Ti Point for $8.7m in an off-market deal that took six months to pull together.
A neighbouring 3.3ha site on Bishop Hill fetched $3.85m two years ago for the land only.
Doole said that 310 Bishop Lane is one of the nicest he has seen in the area.
“This is a legacy home. They don’t come up very often so a buyer would be lucky to get this, it is just a timeless, beautiful design,” he said, adding that he was already fielding enquiries from buyers looking for more private estates, “away from the masses at Omaha”.
The Bishop Lane house has multiple living areas for the extended family. Photo / Supplied
The house was designed to host children and grandchildren by the owners, who are now downsizing. Photo / Supplied
“It’s behind a gated community, there are a few pretty amazing homes, you’ve got a shared boat launching ramp for your friends to bring up the boats and then park at your jetty. This is a multi-generational home.”
Doole said his vendors were genuine downsizers who plan to stay in the area.
He is also marketing with Barfoot & Thompson’s David Goodhue a 5.5ha vineyard at 38 Omaha Flats Road that is being pitched as a development opportunity as it has mixed rural zoning.
The property, next to the Sculptureum park and restaurant, could be used for retail, hospitality or tourist and visitor facilities.
- 310 Bishop Lane, Tawharanui, Rodney, is for sale by tender closing July 20
