- Ross Hawkins is selling his grandparents’ four-bedroom home on Tuhaere Street, Orakei.
- The property, with harbour views, is near the Hotchin mansion, valued at $58m.
- Hawkins’ family has lived there since the 1940s; the house has an RV of $5m.
Luxury real estate agent Ross Hawkins has a tough assignment: selling his grandparents’ home.
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The four-bedroom property at 11 Tuhaere Street, in Auckland’s Orakei, has a clear view of the harbour and the city’s most expensive house.
The house built by Bert and Hazel Barker backs onto the Hotchin mansion on Paritai Drive, which sold for a record $38.5 million in 2013 to Chinese businessman Stone Shi and now has an RV of $58m.
The original house was finished in 1961 and modernised by the agent’s parents in the 1990s. Photo / Supplied
Buyers from the area like to move closer to the water and views, that grandfather Bert Barker boasted were better than Paritai Drive’s. Photo / Supplied
Hawkins told OneRoof his grandfather had turned down the chance to buy the land on which the Hotchin mansion now sits. “When we were younger, the old brick house below our own house came up for sale. Grandfather went and had a look at it. He came back and said, ‘No, I’d rather be where we are because we’re much more private here’,” he said.
“He decided we had the better spot, but that Paritai Drive house ended up becoming part of the Hotchin mansion.”
The neighbourhood of the four-bedroom home on 11 Tuhaere Street has always been one of the city’s most prestigious neighbourhoods, Hawkins said.
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“It’s rare to be on the seaward side, it’s a prime position, we look across the side of the Hotchin mansion.”
Hawkins said his family had lived on Tuhaere Street since the 1940s. “The house next door [number 13] was the first house built on the street. It was a double section and was the prime position. Mum and her brothers lived at number 15, but then in the late 1950s Pop talked his neighbour into selling the chicken run off his double section, and that’s where our family house is now, at number 11.”
Hawkins said his grandfather was one half of Barker and Pollock, the famous fashion retailers. He travelled a lot overseas, and his mum was able to see him take off from Mechanics Bay and fly up the harbour in front of the house.
The former Hotchin mansion is next door to Hawkins’ family home. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Barker’s stays in modern hotels and apartments opened his eyes to the latest in open plan design, so the house, finished in 1961, was way ahead of its time, Hawkins said.
Hawkins’ parents remodelled the house in the 1990s after Bert and Hazel died, but his mother, who is 93, is now selling up to move into a retirement village. “Bert designed it like a big penthouse apartment. All the living is on one upper level, that’s why Mum could be there so long. It’s a flat site with close-up harbour views,” Hawkins said.
“It could be modernised again because of its shape. It’s structurally sound.”
He added: “The house has seen five generations, right through to my generation’s kids’ kids. That’s quite rare to be in family that long.”
The streets around Paritai Drive have seen a flurry of development and renovation work. Photo / Chris Tarpey
Hawkins said redevelopment was rife on the blue-chip streets around Tuhaere, with homeowners undertaking multimillion-dollar renovations or building new structures.
“Two doors down is a substantial build with a tennis court, three others on the street are underway,” Hawkins said.
“You have houses worth $20m, $30m - the Hotchin house would be worth $50m now. You could never over-capitalise on this location.”
Hawkins said that buyers for front-row properties tend to already have houses in the area, but want to get closer to the sea. “It’s like Omaha. People tend to move from the back and find their way to the front.”
The agent is marketing his family property with colleague Ben Sceats. “It’s interesting being an agent dealing with something that’s been your whole life. It’s not until you go through it yourself that you realise how much it means after 60 years in the family,” he said.
“It’s a big move, but there comes a time for everything in life.”
The four-bedroom two-storey house, which has an RV of just over $5m, sits on a 991sqm section and has a large flat north-facing lawn that, Hawkins said in the listing, “offers abundant space for a pool and pool house”.
- 11 Tuhaere Street, Orakei, Auckland, is for sale, deadline closing June 5