A pair of impressively renovated churches on Auckland’s North Shore are back on the market for sale after a $4 million-plus deal to buy them fell through.
The sale of the two historic churches had been in the pipeline for a year, with the buyer waiting on the Commerce Commission to approve the sale of his business to an overseas company in order to release the necessary funds.
But the Commerce Commission ruled against the business deal, saying it would significantly reduce competition in the market, and the buyer was forced to cancel his purchase of the Devonport churches.
Owner Leslie Harris, who is the director of the First Home Buyer Club which helps Kiwis get on the property ladder, relisted the churches for sale this week.
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She told OneRoof the collapse of the deal had left both her and her husband Wayne Kelly heartbroken.
They had spent five years and millions of dollars transforming the churches on Calliope Road into luxury homes.
Harris said they had received multiple offers from people to buy the churches when they listed them in April last year and they chose what they thought was the cleanest one.
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A Kiwi man wanted to buy both churches so his parents could live in one and run an art gallery in the other. The offer had been conditional on the sale of his business to an overseas firm.
“We thought we don’t even have to move our furniture, we just have to move out with our suitcases, our photographs and our underwear and our clothes,” Harris told OneRoof.
She said the sale of the business appeared to be a “tick box” exercise, requiring only the approval of the Overseas Investment Authority. Neither party predicted the involvement of the Commerce Commission, which “dragged” out the process.
“Every month we would go, ‘We are going to hear that we are unconditional’. But it wasn’t until the very end, in June this year, that we started to think, ‘Oh shit, the New Zealand Commerce Commission don’t look to be clearing this deal’. And then the deal got declined.
Lesley Harris: “We’ve kind of gone really over and above what most normal people would do because of that kind of passion." Photo / Supplied
The white church has impressive water views across to Auckland city. Photo / Supplied
“We stuck with the deal because it was a good deal and the buyer purchased both buildings with everything inside and out, including the linen and the towels – everything. Every bit of furniture, every bit of art, because they were going to live in the back one and have the front one as an art gallery.”
Harris conceded that an offer that was conditional on a house sale might have been better but “no one predicted that this deal would ever not be approved by the New Zealand Commerce Commission – no one.”
Harris said the collapse of the deal was incredibly disappointing because it had massively delayed the couple’s life plans, including her new business venture.
The completely renovated Devonport churches can be bought together or separately. Photo / Supplied
The modern bathroom in the white church is a dramatic change from the outside toilet it had when Harris first purchased the buildings. Photo / Supplied
The bedrooms are stylish yet retain the character of the building's past. Photo / Supplied
However, she is confident the new listing campaign will yield results. She said the last campaign triggered more than 230 enquiries over a three-week period and she was hopeful the properties would attract similar interest. This time around they are also holding some open homes.
The wooden original chapel, built in 1865, has been converted into a four-bedroom home, two-bathroom home, while the 1920s brick building has been given a New York loft-style facelift and has two bedrooms, a study, and a large open-plan living space. They can be bought either separately or together.
Last year offers had come in from a real mix of people including a young family who just wanted to buy the kauri church as their forever home, a church group who wanted both so they could use one as their gathering place and the other as the priest or minister’s home, and an older family with teenagers who wanted to spread out across both properties.
Harris says the churches are warm inside. Photo / Supplied
The renovation tested Harris' skills as an interior designer. Photo / Supplied
Harris said if the properties were purchased separately then they would go ahead with a subdivision, but they were waiting to see what people wanted first. There were also consented plans for the brick church to be extended into a similar four-bedroom, two-bathroom home like the white church.
“That’s one of the reasons we didn’t complete that subdivision because it’s quite a lot of money and if you don’t want to sell one off why would you bother.”
Harris said the previous offers on the white kauri church were in the mid to high $2ms while an offer on the brick building was in the early to mid-$2ms. The now defunct offer they had accepted for both buildings was “comfortably north of $4m”.
“They are spectacular properties,” she said.
UP Real Estate agent Kara Barston, who marketed the properties the first time around, said in her listing that it wasn’t often “you get a second chance”. Last year she told OneRoof that the churches had attracted a lot of interest, and that she had fielded multiple phone calls and emails, and her social media had “gone nuts”.
- 95A Calliope Road, in Devonport, Auckland, has a set sale date of December 12
