A crumbling villa in Auckland’s Grey Lynn is expected to sell for more than $2 million when it goes to auction at the end of the month.
The four-bedroom villa at 23 Millais Street is one of a shrinking number of do-ups in Auckland's inner-city suburbs and is being sold as a deceased estate.
It had been owned by the same family for almost 100 years, said Ray White agents Chloe and Scott Wither, who are marketing the property
“The council valuation is $1.725m, so we’d certainly expect the price will start with a two,” Scott told OneRoof.
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“While the property is certainly run-down, it still retains plenty of features that make these period homes so very special.”
The house on Millais Street in Grey Lynn, Auckland, has been untouched for decades. Photo / Supplied
Two do-up properties on either side of 23 Millais have sold for $2m-plus each in the last 12 months, another three-bedroom house on the street that agents dubbed “ready for a makeover” sold for $1.85m last September.
The Withers also sold a tidily renovated three-bedroom villa down the road in March for $2.45m
“This is the best do-up we’ve seen in years,” says Scott, pointing to the big bedrooms and original features like the wood floors, fretwork, high ceilings and grand proportions that he calls “villa-gold” despite the original lean-to kitchen and bathroom, lino and scrim and sarking walls.
The kitchen and bathroom still have original features. Photo / Supplied
“This street is really changing, every second house has builders, vans and skips outside. It’s been the golden triangle and tightly held,” Scott said.
Would-be buyers doing their renovation sums may well note recent high value sales of renovated properties in the area. In March this year a stylishly renovated three-bedroom house in nearby Rose Road sold for $3.41m, a profit on paper of more than $1m in the eight months since it last sold in July, OneRoof records show.
The house sits on a 481sqm site with the backyard facing west. Photo / Supplied
Also in March an immaculate four-bedroom home on Ponsonby’s John Street sold for $3.905m, nearly twice its $2.2m CV. And a two-bedroom cottage with a large, luxury modern add-on in nearby Norfolk Street sold earlier this month for an astonishing $5.3m.
“We're not sugar-coating it, there is a lot of work to be done here, but the rewards will be enormous,” the Withers said.
A renovated villa on nearby Rose Road in Grey Lynn sold for $3.41m in March, after changing hands eight months earlier for $2.356m. Photo / Supplied
