- A mid-century Vlad Cacala house in Remuera sold for $5.35m to buyers planning renovation.
- The 1960s house, needing extensive work, attracted strong interest with some considering demolition.
- Agent Anna Sareczky is pleased the buyers will renovate, preserving the home’s original design.
A mid-century Vlad Cacala house in a prime Remuera waterfront spot sold to buyers who planned to renovate rather than demolish, said agent Anna Sareczky, from Harveys Real Estate.
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The Lucerne Road house – next door to the house the Czechoslovakian architect built for himself – needed a fair amount of work and sold for $5.35 million, a shade under its $5.6m RV.
There was strong interest and several offers, but some would-be buyers were talking about demolishing the property, which dated to the 1960s and had been with the same family ever since it was commissioned.
The house had been in the same family since the 1960s. Photo / Supplied
The new owners plan to refurbish the home. Photo / Supplied
“We were always a bit unclear on whether or not it would be restored, which is what we hoped because it was a Cacala, and, of course, his own house is next door,” Sareczky told OneRoof.
“Some of the buyers wanted to pull it down and build a, I suppose, McMansion, but we are delighted the purchaser intends to renovate it.”
The interior was dated, however, and “everything” needed to be renovated, from the kitchen to both bathrooms, the agent told OneRoof.
“It had had no maintenance done on it for a very, very long time.”
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Despite the work needed, the home retained the glamour and polish of its past, Sareczky said.
Walter and Elizabeth Deutsch, of Herme’s Gloves, commissioned the property. “They owned it that whole time and the boys have grown up in it, and they had lovely parties,” she said.
“They used to naughtily jump off the roof into the deep end of the pool, and obviously grew up with wonderful fireworks displays across the Orakei basin and above Sky City and that kind of thing.”
Everyone who came to look could not help but be captured by the stunning view, Sareczky said.
“It’s front and centre to wide screen views, which are just beautiful. There’s definitely a nonchalant ambience about it. It’s very sleek, a high-end design, but also kind of friendly at the same time.”
The stunning house looks out over the Orakei basin. Photo / Supplied
Cacala designed a series of open-planned spaces and the whole house was designed to face the view. “There are no pockets of it that don’t, so it’s very appealing. Buyers were quite excited about it, but you needed to have a bit of a vision to feel like you could take it on and know what you were doing with it because there would need to be some level of reconfiguring to make it work for modern life.”
When Cacala, who designed many homes in Auckland in the 1950s and 1960s, came to look at the site, he liked it so much he built himself a similar house next door, Sareczky said.
“The owners of the one next door have refurbished that beautifully.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Remuera
