A newly renovated property in West Auckland has a sweet central city twist: it is made up of two separate houses - one from Ellerslie and one from One Tree Hill, both of which were trucked onto the site back in 1961.
The four-bedroom villa on 4/198 Don Buck Road is billed as having "that Ponsonby feel but at a Massey price".
Ray White agent Hannah Moloney, who is marketing the property with Amanda Fryer, said it was very unusual to see a beautiful 1900s restored villa in Massey.
“I’m not sure if it’s the only one, but it’s certainly the only one I’ve seen, so it’s been popular - lots of people through,” she said, adding that price feedback has been around $850,000 to $900,000.
Start your property search
Property flipper Nick Coyle, who is also a mortgage broker, bought the run-down house at auction only six months ago, pulling in his regular team of builders, painters, and kitchen makers to transform the 134sqm house on a cross-lease section.
Discover more:
- Mike Hosking, please buy my house. You know you’ll love it
- Construction duo’s supersize resort up for grabs - will it break records?
- The multi-millionaire wellness guru who is missing his caravan
“[The vendors] had declined my pre-auction offer but I purchased for exactly that same price, $600,000.
“There was no other bidder at the auction. It was a pretty daunting project, but I’ve done this before,” Coyle said.
He estimated he has done 10 such flips over the past five years, but this one was a bigger and longer job than his usual modest three-bedroom, one-bathroom modern house projects.
The run-down villa before. Its dilapidated condition put off many buyers and it sold for $600,000. Photo / Supplied
The interior was not in much better state when it sold in March 2024. Photo / Supplied
“It was marketed as a bit of a do-up, but that was an understatement. It was in a relatively run-down state of repair and the previous owner had started renovations on it, ripped up the carpets and so on.”
First on Coyle’s list was carving a second bathroom out of the large old-school laundry and completely replacing the relatively new kitchen with one that had a better layout (including fitting out a butler’s pantry). The original bathroom also got brand new fixtures and Coyle’s crew painted inside and out, restored the original wood floorboards and did full new plumbing and electricals. The separate living room is now advertised as a potential fourth bedroom.
“We spent about $110,000. To be honest it was a pretty daunting project,” Coyle said. He added that despite digging through the council files for more information on how the two properties were joined together on the Massey site, he was unable to establish where each original house started and stopped.
The renovated kitchen now includes a scullery. Photo / Supplied
The updated living room is also billed as a fourth bedroom. Photo / Supplied
The cross-lease property, one of four on the driveway, has extensive concrete parking pads but no garage or outdoor living in the front and the agents are pitching the grass bank that fronts the driveway as having potential to terrace or landscape to create gardens or an outdoor entertaining space. There is a deck at the back of the kitchen.
Coyle said that in the four weeks the house had been on the market, buyers were struggling to figure out what the property might be worth.
“I like to think of myself as not speculating, but returning a property to a liveable condition, providing a property someone can live in.
“Four bedrooms and two bathrooms are not common in Massey, lots of houses in the area are three bed, one bathroom,” he said.
The agent added: “People were under the perception that it would be really expensive, but Nick is a property flipper. So, he’s not going to sit around, he wants to get his money back and move on. “
- 4/198 Don Buck Road, Massey, West Auckland, is for sale by price by negotiation.
