A builder’s Covid renovation project sold within five days of hitting the market, with the stunning property attracting both local and international interest.
OneRoof records show the four-bedroom luxury home on Awatere Avenue, in Beerescourt, Hamilton sold for $2.85 million – almost $2m more than the vendor paid in 2019.
Harcourts agent Craig Annandale, who brokered the deal with colleague Yvenna Yue, said he received multiple offers for the riverside property. The buyers were locals but interest had come from as far as Australia and the US.
Annandale said it was a stunning home and people who stepped into it during the private viewings instantly fell in love with it.
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Locals knew the value of the river location, he said. Most of those who expressed interest were families, like the new owners, or empty-nesters.
“It was a unique home in terms of the pool and it was lock-and-leave because you didn’t need to mow any lawns apart from the verge.”
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Awatere Avenue was one of Hamilton’s most popular locations, Annandale said, noting there was a long queue of buyers waiting for properties on the street to come to market.
“The buyers will pounce [on a house] when they see it.”
Hamilton builder Nick Holcroft spent two years transforming and upgrading the 1960s-era property, moving in with his young family during the first lockdown.
He told OneRoof last month that he had initially wanted to bowl the house, which had been reclad with plaster in the 1990s, but he chose to renovate because boundary rules would have limited the size of any new structure on the site.
The kitchen was relocated to make the most of the river views. Photo / Supplied
The house was unrecognisable after the impressive renovation. Photo / Supplied
Holcroft said the first Covid lockdown allowed him to experience the house and work on a winning redesign. “It played a big part in us deciding the size of windows and what we needed.”
He kept most of the original exterior walls but went to town on the interiors of the three-storey home. “Inside, the rooms were small and compartmentalised. We saw an opportunity to turn it all around.”
Holcroft said the house was now “pretty unrecognisable” from what it used to look like.
He shifted the kitchen to the river-side part of the house, creating a modern, open-plan layout with a living room, covered deck and media room, separated by a large sliding door. He also moved the master bedroom to the ground floor, giving it an impressive walk-in wardrobe and fully tiled ensuite, and added 30sqm to the existing footprint.
Before: The exterior of the home was covered in plaster stucco as part of a big renovation carried out in the 1990s. Photo / Supplied
Outside, an engineered swimming pool surrounded by low-maintenance gardens backs onto the walking path and the river below.
Holcroft also drew on the expertise of well-known Kiwi interior designers Bronwyn Turton and Mel Oliver for decor advice. The result is a tasteful blend of American oak cabinetry with a Dekton kitchen bench, stone vanity benches and light-coloured tiling.
Personal touches include a whimsical flower-like light shade in the stairwell and engineered timber flooring, which Holcroft stained himself in graphite.
Holcroft, whose firm mainly focuses on new builds, said the renovation was a revelation, and gave him an insight to all the stresses his clients must feel. “We lived right through this whole renovation. We moved bedrooms about four times while we were doing it,” he told OneRoof last month.
Holcroft said it had been a great home for their now family of four, but they were ready to move onto their next project.
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