A timewarp home with strong Austin Powers vibes has sold under the hammer for just over $3 million.
The swinging two-bedroom home on Maungawhau Road, in Epsom, Auckland, was the ultimate prize for two determined bidders at the Ray White auction this afternoon.
Both parties quickly drove up the price of the deceased estate, which had gone to market boldly declaring it would be sold on auction day.
And the lucky buyer walked away a two-time winner, having also triumphed against his opponent at an earlier auction for an adjoining 1320sqm section, which was part of the same estate.
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All up the buyer paid $4.55m for both properties, the combined size of which is a massive 3340sqm in the heart of the city's prized grammar zone.
Listing agent Steve Stone, who marketed the property with colleague Sho Mehta, told OneRoof after the auction that the buyer had plans to renovate.
More than 200 groups had been through the mid-century home since it hit the market at the end of last month.
Stone told OneRoof in the lead up to the auction that many had been curious to see the inside the house, which cannot be seen from the street.
The staircase is a standout feature. Photo / Supplied
The carpeting throughout the house is colourful and original. Photo / Supplied
His marketing had made no bones about the possible fate of the time capsule building, suggesting it could be restored or replaced by a modern building. Together the house and adjoining vacant section had a combined CV of $5.575m.
The deceased estate has been left virtually untouched since it was built by K Rd menswear store owner Colin Maclean over a period of two years in the 1950s. Maclean died in 2005, and after his wife Hildegard died last year the property was put on the market.
The three-storey house has only two bedrooms, but numerous entertainment rooms. It was packed with then-unheard-of tech features built by the ahead-of-his-time Maclean.
“I called him a time traveller, he was so far ahead of his time. He was just a clever bugger,” a family friend had told OneRoof last month. The friend’s dad had helped Maclean with the tricky job of waterproofing the unusual flat roof, and the friend and his wife had helped Hildegard with upkeep on the house.
The bedroom is a riot of red and green. Photo / Supplied
The bathroom is heavy on purple and lilac. Photo / Supplied
Maclean built in a radio and a sound system in the living room – for years he ran a record label and recording studio known as Tudor out of the house – and one of the living rooms converted to a cinema for parties. The leopard-trimmed bar still stands, as does the striking gilt and red bedroom and purple and blue bathrooms.
Stonework in the once “amazing” gardens, now run-down since Maclean died in 2005, was built by prisoners on day release from Mount Eden Prison in the 1920s and 1930s, the friend said.
A keen astronomer, Maclean had built an observatory in the garden, a replica of the nearby Stardome at Cornwall Park. While the concrete base remains, there is just an old corrugated iron shed left.
The carpeting throughout the house is colourful and original. Photo / Supplied
Enjoy drinks at the leopard-skin bar. Photo / Supplied
Maclean did a lot of the welding for the striking circular steel staircase and balustrades on the deck and designed and built a lot of the cabinetry in the house. The carport walls featured Egyptian-style scenes he had carved into the concrete walls.
The couple bought the adjoining 1320sqm land at number 46 in 1979, inviting the local fire brigade to burn the house down for practice so they could retain their privacy with the empty tree-fringed section.
A self-contained one-bedroom flat was later added for Hildegard’s mother, but the friend said she left decor unchanged over the years.
“It was kept as a shrine. It’s an amazing house. God bless her, Hildegard was an amazing lady. But nobody had been in the house, she wouldn’t let them past the round table on the ground floor,” he said.
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