The Japanese-style house in Remuera that attracted un-precedented interest at open homes sold under the hammer today for $3.95m.
The Ray White agent marketing the four-bedroom home on Portland Road, Ross Hawkins, said he had never seen such crowds through a home. Some 600 people viewed the four-bedroom house surrounded by a pool and gardens through its month-long campaign, many of them aficionados of Japan design rather than serious buyers.
Three bidders put their hands up for the auction, which, after 25 bids went to a couple from Queenstown. The husband had seen the house, the wife flying in specially for the auction to see the house for the first time today, Hawkins said.
“They are long term fans of Japan, they love the food and the culture. The vendors are delighted and the buyer is who we’d hoped would be successful.”
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Bidding on the house, which has a CV of $3.75m, started at $2.8m but quickly reached its final price. The on-site auction was watched by two of the owners’ children, with a third dialing in by phone, and a crowd of onlookers.
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The sale rounds out a huge month for the family of late owner Robin Rive who with her husband Bryan conceived and built the house over many years. Robin died in early May, aged 84, and her husband Bryan, who is unwell, is in care. They were reluctant to let the house go.
“But it was just getting to that point,” her daughter Jackie Rive told OneRoof, adding that fittingly the family celebrated her mother’s life with a big memorial gathering the weekend before the auction.
The house, designed by architect Robert Railley, took two and a half years to build and was completed in 1987. Photo / Supplied
“It’s been our family for 40 years, it might hit us later. We’re not even thinking about what we have to do next to empty out the place.
“But they’re a gorgeous couple who’ve bought it and we had a really lovely send off to the house. It went really well,” she said.
Visitors were drawn to the authentic Japanese style of the house and garden, painstakingly researched for nearly 20 years and built over three years by its owners over 40 years ago.
Robin, a physio by profession who had side businesses in fashion and then making and exporting teddy bears, travelled frequently to Japan for her business. The Rives, who also had a farm in Clevedon where they hosted Japanese tourists in the 1980s and then ran Japanese etiquette classes for business people in their new home.
Robin had owned the Portland Road section, carved off land owned by the Caughey family of Smith and Caughey’s, for over 20 years before embarking on building her dream.
After years of research, the couple enlisted big name architect Robert Railley to design the house in the style of Sukiya, a simple sixteenth century farmhouse style made of wood with clay walls. The two and a half year build finished in1987.
The kitchen, with modern appliances, still echoes the traditional style of Japanese cupboards. Photo / Supplied
The main bathroom features an onsen-style stone soaking tub. Photo / Supplied
The only concession to modern tastes were wool carpets in the living room and bedrooms, rather than tatami straw mats, but even the bathrooms have cabinets that echo traditional tansu cupboards and the main bathroom has a stone-wrapped soaking bath typical of Japanese onsen, or outdoor hot springs.
Central heating and smart kitchen appliances were also essential modern touches.
The living room opens through sliding doors to the deck cantilevered over the pool. Photo / Supplied
Stepping stones in the garden. Photo / Supplied
The high ceilings, sliding doors (glass, rather than traditional paper so that the Gives had views of their meticulously styled gardens) and sheltered porches are all authentic.
The Rives even managed to convince Council regulators to allow them to keep their Japanese-style decks hover over the pool unfenced (child-proof locks meet the rules). The pool and gardens have rocks craned from the their Clevedon farm and feature mature gardens of azaleas, Japanese black pines and ferns and boxwood.
Hawkins who said everyone was delighted with the outcome, said:
“You don’t feel like you’re even in Auckland. After an open home, usually we agents lock up and go, but here we just want to sit down, it’s such a calm place.”
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