A striking renovation of a Remuera house originally designed by 1970s architect Claude Megson sold this month for over $10 million after multiple offers.
While she could not reveal the exact price, Barfoot & Thompson agent Cici Wang, who marketed the Arney Road double grammar zone property with Jade King, said it went for eight figures, well over its CV of $7.4m.
OneRoof records show the property with multiple living areas, a sleek designer kitchen and a bar room, all sited on a gated 1102sqm site sold less than three years ago, pre-renovation for $5.95m, $1m above CV and $3.47m more than what it previously sold for in 2010. The property was marketed by fellow Barfoot & Thompson agents Leila and David MacDonald in a four-week campaign that Wang called “clean and quick”.
Megson was known for remaining hands-on with ‘his’ properties long after the home was passed on. Earlier owners of the Arney Road house told OneRoof they thought of themselves as ‘guardians’, not owners. The architect famously turned up to his projects to show owners how the house should be lived in.
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“My buyer had missed out on another property next door that sold two years ago. He has patiently waited for more properties to come on the market,” Wang said.
The house was designed by 1970s architect Claude Megson and has been renovated by various owners over the years to retain Megson's quirks. Photo / Supplied
“At that level you get very limited numbers [of properties], especially those with cliff-top views. These buyers are not waiting for finance, but just the premium location, double grammar zone, fantastic views.”
Wang added buyers at that level had very special requirements, and were waiting for the right property to come along.
She also sold a classic renovated 1910 five-bedroom mansion for over $15m in a deal inked in June which doesn’t settle until next year. Again, Wang said, the high-end buyer had been waiting for the right property, which had also been marketed by the MacDonalds.
Sometimes that pent-up demand means properties move swiftly, sometimes before hitting the market.
That sale comes as word got about for another property Bayleys agents Gary and Vicki Wallace were getting ready to bring to market.
A stylishly renovated house on Bell Road in Remuera sold after only 10 days on the market for more than its CV of $7.9m. Photo / Supplied
“The buyer bumped into somebody and heard [it was on the market], we’d only just done the photography. We got calls before we started marketing, and it was bought by the first person who saw it, for over $8m,” Gary Wallace said.
Another property, a completely renovated five-bedroom house with a swimming pool at Bell Road, Remuera, marketed by Bayleys agents Gary and Vicki Wallace, sold over the weekend after only 10 days on the market.
Gary Wallace could not disclose the price but said there was interest above its CV of $7.9m.
“We had 30 interested parties through, all of them qualified. People move quickly once they’re interested,” he said.
“It’s very property specific, anything that ticks all the boxes.”
Wallace said that the property, a modern house renovated by well-known architect Paul Leuschke in stages over the vendors’ 25 years in the home, was “sensational” and its multiple living areas, including a rumpus/self-contained studio, flat lawn and meticulous landscaping around a re-built pool was exactly what buyers were looking for.
A striking concrete house by modern architects made Arney Road top sale, settling for $16m. Photo / Supplied
It follows several other high-end deals this year on three top streets of Remuera – Victoria Avenue, Arney Road and Arney Crescent.
The Wallaces sold another house on Arney Road, a majestic five-bedroom 1900s villa on a 1447sqm site with views of the Sky Tower for $11.55m in July.
The top price this year on the street was the $16m paid in June for a striking modern concrete home. The sale of the house on a 1528sqm corner site on Arney Road is believed to be a private deal.
Top prices in neighbouring Victoria Avenue were the $11m paid in February for a near-new five-bedroom home that was snapped up by an expat family returning to New Zealand from a stint in Asia, brokered by Boulgaris Realty, and the $10.25m paid for a cutting-edge renovation of an arts and crafts house by architect Noel Lane that settled in August, brokered by New Zealand Sotheby's International.
