- Art and Matilda Green are selling their Warkworth home to move to the countryside.
- They bought the four-bedroom villa for $750,000 in 2018 and renovated it extensively.
- The couple wants more space for their family of five, aiming for a larger property nearby.
The Bachelor NZ’s Art and Matilda Green are selling their family home after deciding to trade town life for a slice of the countryside.
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The reality TV stars and social media influencers bought their four-bedroom villa on Lilburn Street, in Auckland’s Warkworth, for $750,000 in 2018.
They told OneRoof it had been the perfect spot for them and their growing family, but they now hankered for the challenge of a lifestyle property.
The couple aren’t afraid of taking risks. The first season of The Bachelor NZ, which aired more than 10 years ago, was a big punt that paid off with love, marriage, children, and successful careers in the media.
Matilda told OneRoof that buying a home together was the first big test of their relationship. They were mid-air when the villa went to auction.
The couple’s four-bedroom villa on Lilburn Street, in Warkworth, goes to auction next month. Photo / Supplied
Art and Matilda updated the kitchen, which is familiar to their Instagram fans. Photo / Supplied
“My mum went to the auction. When we landed, we heard we’d got the house. My mum was the only one there,” Matilda told OneRoof.
She added: “It was a great time to buy. The market wasn’t stupid, and Warkworth was still a sleepy town. The house needed a bit of work, but the bones were there.”
The villa has been a backdrop to many of the couple’s social media posts and promotions and will no doubt look familiar to their hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers, who over the years will have marvelled at the smoothies whisked up in the kitchen or Art’s topless workouts on the deck. “Both of us pretty much work from home 90% of the time,” Matilda said.
Matilda, who is filling in for PJ Harding on Matty McLean’s afternoon show on The Hits, said the couple had put a lot of effort into making the house their own.
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“I wish I’d taken a ‘before’ photo of the laundry because it was a mess, and now it’s lovely,” Matilda said. “I have a love-hate relationship [with Pinterest]. I see all these amazing [renovations] and think, ‘That cost thousands. How do I recreate it for a fraction of the price?’.”
Art told OneRoof his first DIY job was rebuilding the deck. Then he tackled the kitchen renovation. “I’ve been slowly acquiring more and more tools since we started living here. I started not knowing how to use any of them, but now I do. I learned lots from my tradie friend. He would come around and do bits and bobs around the house.”
The house also holds special meaning for the couple. All of their children - Milo, 5, Autumn, 2, and Penny, 1 - were born there.
The couple’s favourite retreat is the sauna, spa and ice bath they built. Photo / Supplied
Matilda said the big living room was the family hub. “Whether it’s colouring or reading or doing crafts, we’re always using it. We are just living everyday life there, though it was probably once the ‘good’ room.”
The couple’s favourite “grown-up” feature is beneath the house, where the custom-made sauna, ice bath, and yoga-relaxation space are located. “It’s our sanctuary,” Matilda said.
The couple said they were heading to the edge of town for a larger property. “We’re not ready for the full lifestyle block with animals, but we want a little more room for riding bikes and all that,” Matilda said.
“Milo starts school next term, and we could walk to school from here. People just sort of pop in sometimes. I started to go to wriggle and rhyme classes with Milo as a baby, and there are so many families around here, a really lovely connection.”
She added: “It feels bittersweet to be selling. I love our home so much, all three of my children were born here - it has such special memories. But we’re ready now. We moved here as a couple, and now we’re a family of five, so we need a bit more breathing space.”
Bayleys agent Heather Walton, who is bringing the house to auction, said it was a “dear place”.
“It’s so gorgeous to see the real side of Art and Matilda, such a beautiful little family, and they’ve done it so well.”
Walton declined to give a price indication for the property, which has an RV of $1.025 million, but said she was expecting buyer interest in the “early to mid-$1ms”.
- Lilburn Street, in Warkworth, Auckland, goes to auction on May 7
