Cartoonist Burton Silver and his family will hold one last soiree at their much-loved Scorching Bay boatshed before handing over the keys to the next family in the new year.
The 14sqm boatshed built by Silver’s great uncle sold for $196,000 just minutes after passing in for the same price at a competitive Bayleys auction last Thursday.
The bidding came down to two local residents both wanting to have a boatshed right on the water and was eventually purchased by an extended family who live in Seatoun.
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Bayleys Wellington general manager Grant Henderson said Silver was excited that it was going to be used by another family to make memories there.
“I think the thing that pleases him the most is that they are local people and have a history in the area and its intergenerational family usage. Rather than some hotshot buying it, he wanted someone who was going to really value what it was and use it for what it’s meant to be so that’s pretty cool.
“The mother, father, son and sister all live in Seatoun and they all have young kids so it’s going to be their thing to do, which is really neat.”
The new owners plan to use it as a beach base for themselves, their kids and grandkids. Photo / Supplied
Henderson said the family had not been specifically looking for a boatshed.
“It’s just aspirational buyers who just see something and go ‘you know what, we will do that’. And bearing in mind you have to pay cash – you can’t go and get finance; you can’t ring the bank and go can I have finance for this boatshed as they won’t give you a penny. There’s no security, it’s only a licence to occupy so you’ve got to pay cash or use the existing equity in the property.”
Silver told Stuff last month that he was four when he learnt to row a dinghy out from the boatshed, which was just across the road from his grandparents home on Karaka Bay Road.
The family home was sold three years ago and the bush bach where Silver famously penned his Bogor comic strips from sold in 2018.
The 90-year-old boatshed was the last property owned by the family in the bay and Silver told Stuff that was the end of an era for the family and “our final departure from the bay”.
Meanwhile, an Auckland boatshed at 18/1 Ngapipi Road expected to smash the $2.05m price record set five months ago by one of the 16 other heritage-protected boatsheds in Whakatakataka Bay, in Auckland’s Orakei, is now priced by negotiation after failing to sell at auction.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Paul Sissons told OneRoof last month that the shed was "pretty flash", bigger and had more amenities than the one he took to auction in June.
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