Ex-Auckland retirees have traded in their Northland beach house for an architecturally designed dream home in Kohimarama.
The three-level residence on Sprott Road sold for just over $4m this week with the retired couple beating off another offer from a local family also vying for ownership of the impressive five-year-old home.
The new owners are returning to Auckland for health reasons and are the fourth retired couple that Barfoot & Thompson agent Paul Neshausen has sold properties to in recent months who are moving back to Auckland after previously leaving for the beach lifestyle.
“The dream of retiring and pocketing some cash outside of Auckland that’s very real, but then health fails and you need to be close to a decent hospital and all the health services, so they move back to Auckland.”
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While others discover the beach resorts don’t have as much going on as they thought and start missing their friends and family, he added.
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The Sprott Road property was a passion project for Kohimarama business owners James and Claire who collaborated with renowned architect and founding director of FORMiS, Kenny Chia, to bring their vision for their four-bedroom, four-bathroom home to life over several years.
Their brief was a no-maintenance home with a pool and good outdoor entertainment area that also used natural materials such as cedar and marble. It flows out from the ground floor which houses a theatrette, wine cellar, kitchenette, powder room, office, and a polished concrete living area.
Now their house has sold, the couple plans to embark on a new project about 300m away.
The Sprott Road property passed in at auction earlier this year, was then priced by negotiation, before eventually selling within days of being updated with an asking price of $4.25m. It’s also the highest sale on the street in at least two years.
The homeowners went for unique, quality finishes such as the cedar panelling in the living room and the cedar fin feature wall. Photo / Supplied
The sleek and stunning three-level residence at Kohimarama took several years from conception to completion. Photo / Supplied
Neshausen thinks putting a price on the house helped give people clarity over what it is worth especially when its CV of $3.1m has been quite misleading for some buyers.
The shortage of stock on the market at the moment also means good quality homes are getting snapped up for good prices, he said.
“If you get a decent property – fortunately for me I tend to get the good ones around here – they are very saleable and saleable for good money. It was also a friggin' cool home. Kenny Chia design – the guy is so talented... It was a real architectural masterpiece.”
The ground floor is a dream space for entertaining with a theatrette, wine cellar, kitchenette, powder room, office and a polished concrete living space that flows out poolside. Photo / Supplied
The staircase was the culmination of 12 months’ worth of design and engineering and is the centrepiece of the house. Photo / Supplied
- Additional reporting Amy Houlihan
