A clifftop mansion left teetering on the edge after Auckland’s deadly floods has hit the market for sale.
The owner of 149A Arney Road, in Remuera, has spent more than a million dollars to make the four-bedroom property habitable and safe again.
His backyard and swimming pool slid down the bank, leaving the deck suspended in mid-air after torrential rain smashed Auckland over the Anniversary Weekend last year.
The damage, which resulted in a red sticker, came just three days before he was due to finalise the $10 million-plus sale of the house. The deal was cancelled and the owner was forced to sell his new home to fund the repair work.
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Bayleys agent Sarah Liu, who is marketing the property, told OneRoof buyers should be reassured by the engineering work carried out at the site. “People won’t be concerned. We should believe the scientists. And the views are so impressive.”
The owner, who asked not to be named, bought the striking Claude Megson-designed home in 2019 for $5.95m. He was driving home on the night of the slip and was turned away by the police. Down below on Shore Road, houses were covered in earth and mud, with one resident losing their life in the disaster.
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The owner told OneRoof the repair was necessary and worth it. “I invested a lot of effort and money to completely fix [the property]. I thought I should finish the construction work while I was still alive. Now I think the value of my house is more than worth it.”
Including design, the remediation work took well over a year to complete, with the property now secured by numerous beams and pins installed by ground engineering experts.
Sparta Construction director Brian Lim, who oversaw the rebuild, told OneRoof his client had been negotiating with his neighbours for months over the scope of the project but had decided in the end to press ahead alone.
The Arney Road house after the 2023 floods. Photo / Brett Phibbs
The house when it was on the market in November 2022. It lost part of its deck, the swimming pool and most of the backyard lawns. Photo / Supplied
“Council and Watercare were not ready with their infrastructure plans, so we engaged consulting engineers Babbage to design the repairs in February 2023,” Lim said. Work started in March this year, with the final touches to landscaping completed by June.
The engineering work by Groundfix cost $875,000 and has earned the firm a nomination at the Civil Contractors New Zealand (CCNZ) awards this year. Lim said the owner spent $300,000 more on improvements, including a new deck, which cantilevers out over the now-sloping backyard.
Council and design fees, Lim said, cost another $100,000, with the total bill coming just under $1.3m.
The earthworks are impressive: six 14m ground anchor piles pin the front of the house to the back while another seven 15m piles are fixed into the sandstone bedrock below; there are capping beams to support both sets of piles, with multi-strand anchors that run over 30m in length.
During construction by Groundfix, multiple anchor piles and pins were inserted through to the bedrock below. Access to the site was only via the 1.5m path to the right. Photo / Groundfix
The finished works at 149A Arney Road. The covered outdoor kitchen and barbecue area survived the slip. To the right, six anchor pins hold the house to the site. Photo / Groundfix
The tricky site took some clever managing by Groundfix. Access to the backyard was through a single garage and down a narrow path along the side of the house. The company used small excavators, dumpers, a mini crane, a bespoke miniature drill rig, and a piling rig.
The owner was able to move back into the house before the work finished. The Council replaced its red-sticker designation with a yellow sticker, and removed all stickers in June this year. The owner oversaw the final landscaping touches, including new grass over the erosion matting and planters. The repair was so good, the neighbours have hired Groundfix to repair their home.
The house is a classic from architect Claude Megson's work. Photo / Supplied
The view is one of property's biggest selling points. Photo / Supplied
149A Arney Road is considered one of Megson’s masterpieces, with its split-level living spaces (including a very 1970s sunken bar room), designer kitchen and outdoor kitchen and barbecue area. The views across the harbour and bay are striking, and are what drew the owner to the home in the first place.
“The view made me feel like I was at the Hyatt Hotel,” he said, adding that his daily ritual was photographing the rising sun over the ocean.
- 149A Arney Road, in Remuera, Auckland is for sale
