- Night Agent star Luciane Buchanan bought her grandparents’ Herne Bay home for $2.72m at auction.
- Her aunt didn’t know she was planning to bid at the auction until the last minute.
- “I couldn’t ask for anything better. I’m still trying to register it. And I’m just so pleased.”
OneRoof can confirm that one of New Zealand’s biggest acting stars has bought her family’s house in Auckland’s Herne Bay.
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Last week, the news team highlighted a cryptic Instagram post by Kiwi-Tongan actress Luciane Buchanan, who appears in the hit Netflix series The Night Agent.
Underneath a photo of a sold sign, Buchanan wrote: “My family has done 50 years in this home in Herne Bay. Here’s to many more.”
The photo was one of seven set to Beyonce’s II Hands II Heaven song and includes a vintage photo of three little girls outside the same home.
The modest three-bedroom house had sold for $2.72m at an intense auction held by Harcourts Cooper & Co. Listing agent Carmen Holder told OneRoof that six bidders had competed at the auction, which saw 68 bids placed over almost 20 minutes.
Buchanan’s grandparents bought their Herne Bay house in the 1970s for $21,000. Photo / Supplied
The villa has been in the family’s hands for 50 years, and Buchanan knows it well. She has plans to do it up. Photo / Supplied
This week, OneRoof reporter Diana Clement caught up with one of the vendors, Tangi Folau, who confirmed that Buchanan, her niece, was indeed the buyer. However, Folau only found out Buchanan had won the house after the auction had ended.
“I wasn’t inside the auction room. I was outside. I’m one of those people who prefer not to be in the room because I was really nervous,” Folau told OneRoof.
“I was there with Luciane’s parents, my brother, and my daughter. We had no idea, even when they came out, who won. We were just all excited because we’d met our reserve price.”
Folau said she didn’t find out her niece was planning to buy the house until the last minute. Listing agent Carmen Holder had told her an overseas buyer had registered to bid at the auction, and then dropped the news that the bidder was Buchanan.
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Folau said Buchanan’s parents were in on the secret but had kept quiet. “They only found out a week beforehand, but they kept it from me. I was busy negotiating with all the other bidders, dealing with the settlement dates, agents, lawyers.
“I had to sign for all the bidders attending the auction. I think I had declined a lot of the extended settlement dates. I believe the majority of them were developers. Luciane was the last one.
“I was at my sister’s place. I had Carmen on speakerphone when she dropped [the news]. I was speechless. For Luciane’s parents, it was a big sigh of relief. They were told not to say anything. Luciane was still organising her finances and didn’t want special treatment. She just wanted to be treated like everyone else.”
Folau’s parents, Ekuoti and Tiueti, bought the villa for $21,000 in the 1970s and had raised four generations there. Folau told OneRoof that when Buchanan was a baby, “my parents babysat her in the house like they did with my daughter”.
Buchanan in The Night Agent with the show’s co-star Gabriel Basso. Photo / Netflix
Albert Rounds and Luciane Buchanan in Buchanan’s short film Lea Tupu’anga/Mother Tongue. Photo / Run Charlie Films
Folau had told OneRoof she had promised her mother that she wouldn’t sell the house while her parents were still alive (Ekuoti died in 2000 and Tiueti in 2022). The proceeds from the sale are to be divided among Ekuoti and Tiueti’s seven children, but thanks to Buchanan, the villa will now stay in family hands.
Folau said the family was happy with the result. “After the auction, my daughter had her on FaceTime. She said, ‘Sorry to stress you out and not tell you’. I said, ‘Oh my God, this is double the happiness for me. Not only did we meet our reserve, but it went to someone so close to us’.
“I couldn’t ask for anything better. I’m still trying to register it. And I’m just so pleased.”
Folau said she hadn’t asked Buchanan what her plans were, “but I believe she’s going to do it up”. She added: “My parents, they brought us up well.”
Buchanan, who studied acting at the Auckland Performing Arts Centre, has appeared in several hit shows since she launched her career in 2012 and is set to appear alongside Jason Momoa in the upcoming Apple TV series Chief of War.
Folau is proud of her niece’s achievements and her celebration of her Tongan heritage. She highlighted Buchanan’s short film, Lea Tupu’anga (Mother Tongue), which made it to the Sundance Film Festival in the US. The film, written by and starring Buchanan, tells the story of Katherine, a young speech therapist of Tongan and European descent who lies about her Tongan linguistic abilities to get a job helping an elderly Tongan man named Siaosi.
Folau said: “She won the New Zealand festival, then submitted to Sundance. The story was about the house. About Tongan as a second language, and how our parents didn’t speak English. And also, about the pressure from white people to sell the house. The children adapting to life here, and the temptation to sell because of the money. It’s very similar to how Pacific families experience that tension. What they can gain from what the parents worked hard for.”
- Owen Vaughan is editor of OneRoof.co.nz. You can contact him with any property tips or story ideas at owen.vaughan@nzme.co.nz
