An Auckland mansion once owned by a legendary music entrepreneur and friend to some of the most famous names in rock and roll sold at auction yesterday for $7 million.
The four-bedroom home on Victoria Avenue, in Remuera, was snapped up by local buyers who wanted to send their children to the area’s schools.
Ray White Remuera agent Steve Koerber, who listed the home to auction with wife and colleague Nila, told OneRoof the auction was “bloody intense”.
“We had three registered bidders. Fifty groups had looked at the property, which is pretty good for a high-value home. They knew the CV was $7.2m, so it was clear what the value was,” he said.
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Bidding started at $5m, with two eager buyers pushing the price to $6.5m, before a pause for negotiation brought the top bid to $7m.
Koerber said the buyers had been on the hunt for a home on Remuera’s northern slopes.
“We’d met them at various open homes over the past month. They’d scouted most of Remuera – that was their focus – but top streets like Victoria Avenue were the real drawcard. They had looked at everything.”
Koerber said that last-minute buyers had called to see the property only the night before the auction, but couldn’t make it in time. He is instead putting together an off-market deal for them on another property, which he hopes will close before Christmas.
Roy Orbison once played his guitar in the driveway of the Victoria Avenue home. Photo / Getty Images
Harry M Miller and his wife Simmone Logue in 2006. Photo / Getty Images
The mansion had been owned by Kiwi super agent Harry M Miller, who grew up in Grey Lynn and died in Australia in 2018 aged 84. He made a name for himself in the 1950s managing the Howard Morrison Quartet but it wasn’t long before he truly hit the big-time, when he brought to Australia and New Zealand some of the world’s hottest acts, including the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and Judy Garland.
During that time, he had as his New Zealand base the house on Victoria Avenue.
Neighbours told OneRoof earlier this month of a host of famous names paying visits to Miller at his home.
One local who grew up next door remembered Roy Orbison and the Beach Boys stayed at the property. “I can remember Roy playing his guitar on the driveway for us and I helped Harry’s wife at the time prepare orange juice and snacks for the Beach Boys,” the neighbour told OneRoof.
“Unfortunately, my mother drew the line when Harry offered to take me to meet the Beatles at his office, because she didn’t trust their long hair!”
The classic 1930s house has an outdoor pool. Photo / Supplied
Orbison, the Beach Boys and the Beatles all played in Auckland in 1964, causing quite a stir among the city’s teenagers.
The outgoing owners of the Victoria Avenue property had told OneRoof that there was one other owner between Miller and themselves, but some of Miller’s decorating touches can still be seen.
They said that some of the outside lights reportedly came from the home of actor Cary Grant in the United States and were brought over by Miller.
The couple, Bruce and Wendy, bought the three-storey house 40 years ago.
They said the sheer size of the house – it’s 494sqm in size and sits on a 1251sqm section – was what attracted them to it in the first place.
The interior of the Victoria Avenue home. The property was bought by a local family. Photo / Supplied
“We had two boys, but they left home 23 years ago, and since then we’ve enjoyed having all this space, to ourselves,” Bruce said.
The house was built in the 1930s and enjoys high ceilings, a stucco finish and elegant curves and lines which was the design style of that era.
The Victoria Avenue home is not the only Remuera property to have a high-profile connection to rock ‘n’ roll legends. A mansion on nearby St Vincent Avenue memorably hosted Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards in 2006 after he underwent life-saving brain surgery in Auckland.
Richards spent a month recuperating in the multi-million-dollar Cotter House, which was then run as an upmarket retreat. He later described his time at the house as a “great break” from his hectic touring schedule.
The house sold in 2021 for $8m after undergoing a very expensive makeover.
And in 2014, the former girlfriend of Beatle John Lennon sold her St Marys Bay home for $1.85m.
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