Buyer interest in a modest 1940s home on Auckland’s waterfront has more than doubled since it got a price tag of almost a million dollars below its CV.
The four-bedroom rental at 29 Rawene Avenue, in Westmere, is on a street that houses some of New Zealand’s most expensive properties, including a waterfront pad that ZURU Toys billionaire Anna Mowbray bought in 2020 for $24 million.
The retro-home, which comes with its own boatshed, had been owned by one of Auckland’s leading yachtswoman, but after she died in 2004 aged 96, it passed into the hands of her family who turned it into two rental units.
Read more
Start your property search
- Bought for $2m in July, Herne Bay renovation project is now seeking $3m-plus
- $11m-plus spending spree: Neighbouring baches snapped up on same day
- Pamela Anderson's Auckland party house for sale
The property first hit the market in September, together with the family’s neighbouring rental on Kotare Avenue, but Ray White listing agent Lawrence von Sturmer said it had taken some time for the family to get their heads around its value.
The property was now on the market by itself, with the family deciding to price it at $3.595m - well below its 2021 CV of $4.25m.
“It’s been in the family for such a long time that it’s taken a while to get their heads around value. We priced it over the weekend and it’s a realistic asking price,” von Sturmer said.
He added that as soon as a price was given, interest and traffic to the listing doubled. “We had six groups through on the first mid-week showing. It will sell.”
The modest house on the water of Coxs Bay, is across the road from one of the city’s most expensive houses, and is surrounded by multi-million-dollar properties. Photo / Supplied
29 Rawene Avenue house is split into two flats and has been rented out since the owner died in 2004. Photo / Supplied
Multi-million-dollar sales on Rawene Avenue are not uncommon.
Nearby is the double property bought by former All Black Ali Williams and Mowbray from Shrek director Andrew Adamson. The celebrity couple have since demolished Adamson’s house and are building a new house complete with proposals for a helicopter pad and helped by famous design names.
Last month another waterfront property, an original three-bedroom cottage on a 895sqm site, sold in a private treaty. The sale price is yet to be revealed, but the property had a CV of $6.1m.
It was the first time it was on the market in 100 years, according to listing agent Edward Pack, of Bayleys, and was pitched for the potential of the land in a street full of award-winning modern architecture.
Other top sales include the $17.68m paid for tech start-up entrepreneur Sharon Hunter and former Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell’s striking modern waterfront home. The home made headlines when it was rented by Hollywood action star Jason Statham and his partner, model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, while he was filming the shark thriller The Meg in Auckland.
This year, a modern five-bedroom 542sqm house on a 1176sqm waterfront site sold in July for around its CV of $10.4m, while a modernised bungalow on the non-seaside fetched $5.5m in March. A neighbouring Hollywood Spanish house with a pool on 720sqm went for $3.3m, also in March.
A 721sqm section on Rawene Avenue, with a CV of $4.25m, is back on the market with plans for two houses. Photo / Supplied
An original cottage on Rawene Avenue on an 895sqm site sold in October for an undisclosed price. It had a CV of $6.1m. Photo / Supplied
At the other end of the street, Bayleys agent Blair Haddow has another property for sale, a cleared 721sqm section at 5 Rawene Avenue. The site, which sold five years ago for $2.7m, and has a current CV of $4.2m, $4m of that in land, is for sale with subdivision and resource consents and a building consent in process for two substantial concrete buildings designed by Chris Tate.
Haddow said interest had been huge from developers and home-building companies, but noted with funding so hard to obtain the sale was “a slow burner”.
“It comes down to what people want to do,” he said.
Waterfront homes in the area are hard to come by, the agent said, so interest was also high in a property he has just listed around the corner from Rawene Avenue on 194 Garnet Road, a few houses back from the water. He could not say where the price might land for the renovated three-bedroom bungalow with a pool when it goes to auction November 29, but said he was expecting “interest upwards of $3m”.
OneRoof records show the property has a CV of $3.95m and is on the market for the first time in 28 years. The 673sqm site is zoned for urban density.
Also on the market is a stylish architecturally-designed three-bedroom home on a 400sqm site at 3A Kingsley Street, Westmere, a block back from Coxs Bay park.
Bayleys agent Pack, who brings the property to auction November 29, is pitching the 15-year-old concrete, timber and steel house as a penthouse apartment alternative. Records show it has a CV of $5.5m and last changed hands a year ago for $4.15m.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Westmere
