A first-home buyer in his 20s has snapped up an architectural stunner in Auckland’s Glendowie for $1.455 million.
Listing agent Luke Dallow, from Barfoot & Thompson, said the young man was the only bidder in the room for the two-bedroom Marshall Cook-designed home on West Tamaki Road. However, there were four other parties in the wings waiting for the property to pass in.
“What a great little auction it was. We had the right buyer that bought it. He is delighted. I guided him through what was happening,” Dallow told OneRoof.
Bidding started at $1.4m and was raised to $1.45m before pausing for negotiation. The property then came back to the room and announced on the market at $1.455m.
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Dallow said the buyer had been looking for at least seven weeks and had been saving hard. “He’s stretching himself, but he knows it’s going to work for him in the long run. He’ll be getting some flatmates in and just living the life,” he said. “It’s a good move in this market. This is the market where things are going to move and shake.”
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Dallow said his vendor, Katrina Hall, was delighted with the auction result.
Hall, the chief executive of Context Architects, has a conditional offer on a Grey Lynn property and was able to go unconditional thanks to the sale of her property. “It’s all worked out,” Dallow said.
Hall told OneRoof she was very impressed with Dallow as an agent. “Luke is the hardest working real estate agent I have ever come across. He even fixed my fence, oiled doors and these were the things I couldn’t have done on my own.”
Hall had decided to sell her glass and concrete pad after her 21-year-old actor son, Black Hands star Angus Stevens, moved out. She told OneRoof last week that she didn’t want to be on her own and preferred to be in an apartment close to where he was living. “I will miss the home, but I just trust the universe. Things work out,” she said.
Hall described her home as “beautiful” and “quirky” and a great place for parties and people. “It’s small, but because of the high ceiling we can have big parties here. I work with these amazing creative people. This house is always full of architects, actors, directors and writers,” she told OneRoof.
The house has a tropical feel despite championing glass and steel. Photo / Supplied
The vendor says Cook was one in a million and his design cleverly used the small space. Photo / Supplied
The original owners of the home, a Hawaiian/Māori couple, still live next door and like Hall and Stevens are very community minded. “We’ve been really lucky that we have amazing neighbours,” Hall said. “At Christmas time we have a neighbourhood party in our driveway.”
The futuristic home was built in 1990 by Cook. He used industrial quantities of concrete and steel, creating a solid yet stylish home. “I never would have bought it if it wasn’t concrete,” Hall said, describing Cook as one in a million.
“I’m really lucky to be able to inhabit a space that he has designed. When you get to live in a very cleverly designed architectural home you get to experience all the nuances of the architect. He was so clever in brilliant use of small space.”
Cook, one of New Zealand’s great architects, died in 2023. In 2010, Te Kāhui Whaihanga the NZ Institute of Architects awarded him its highest honour, the gold medal. He had longstanding interests in residential intensification and townhouses and directed the setting up of Housing New Zealand’s healthy housing programme in 2001.
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