The mansion once owned by Auckland’s longest-serving mayor, Sir Dove-Myer Robinson, sold for $12.25 million, OneRoof can reveal.
The deal for the five-bedroom art deco-style house on Victoria Avenue, in Remuera, was struck in November last year but didn't settle until recently.
The new owners, who are currently overseas, put the house on the market for rent in June, asking $3500 a week.
The property, which has an RV of $8.2m, was marketed by Barfoot & Thompson agents Leila and David MacDonald. Strict confidentiality clauses prevent the MacDonalds from commenting on the deal price, the sellers or the buyers.
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According to OneRoof data, it changed hands in 2007 for $4.35m; it was listed for sale in August 2018 and again in April 2022.
The handsome Horace Massey-designed house has stood on its 1265sqm site on the corner of Victoria and Waiata Avenue since 1936.
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“It’s a truly incredible home,” Leila MacDonald told OneRoof when the house hit the market last year, adding that it had undergone an extensive renovation.
The sellers of art deco property were aware of the home’s history and Horace Lovell Massey's architectural input.
“His homes tended to be very arts and crafts in style, so this one really stands out with its strong art deco features. It really has the wow factor, and the gorgeous painted panelling and the high ceilings make it feel like an elegant Parisian apartment,” the owner earlier told OneRoof.
The open-plan dining and family living zone opens to a deck with a loggia overhead of the spa, pool and outdoor fireplace. Photo / Supplied
The luxury marble-clad kitchen was designed by Morgan Cronin. Photo / Supplied
The four-year renovation to update the house added a Morgan Cronin-designed kitchen and butler's pantry, and repainting, indoors and out. There is a covered spa, outdoor fireplace and a heated pool.
The garden was rejuvenated by celebrated landscaper Suzanne Turley, featuring box hedges, topiary and plenty of lush green lawn.
The property includes a one-bedroom annex off the internal garage. The enormous master suite has views to Waiheke Island and, on a clear day, the Coromandel Peninsula.
The property’s most famous owner was Sir Dove-Myer Robinson, known always as Robbie.
Robinson was knighted in 1970 for his services to the city where he was elected mayor six times. He famously would walk to work from the Remuera house to his city office shirtless, an early master of the media photo-call.
While, sadly, Robbie did not succeed in his lobbying for a rapid rail system, he did ensure that Auckland’s sparkling Waitemata Harbour did not turn into a sewage dumping ground. He was into organic gardening and composting city waste decades before the rest of the world.
Sir Dove-Myer Robinson, with TV presenter Alan Whicker in 1973, would walk shirtless from his Remuera home to his mayoral office. Photo / NZ Herald
Victoria Ave has long been the premier address in Remuera, and Auckland.
In December 2021, a mansion that once belonged to Team New Zealand chief Grant Dalton was sold by rich-lister property developer Culum Manson for $19.75m after more than a year on the market.
It came back on the market in May this year, with listing agent Karen Moore, from New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty, and is for sale by negotiation.
Michael Boulgaris, who sold the mansion in December 2021, also negotiated eight-figure sums for two Victoria Ave homes last year: a near-new five-bedroom home that fetched $11m in February 2022 and a former convent and kindergarten estate that sold for $12.38m in July 2022, reaping the vendor a $1.68m profit in 16 months.
In August 2022, NZ Sotheby’s International Realty agents Lesley McLellan and Gavin Pollard brokered the $10.25m deal for an arts and crafts mansion transformed into a modern masterpiece by one of New Zealand's top architects , Noel Lane.
Yet to appear in the settlement records is one of Victoria Ave’s most expensive sales, the 1000sqm five-bedroom home and guest house, known as Cambridge Manor, sold by financier Martyn Reesby.
Yet to settle is Victoria Ave's top sale for last year, believed to be close to $25m. Photo / Supplied
In October last year, Bayleys’ Gary Wallace, who marketed the property with wife Vicki, confirmed to OneRoof that Reesby had sold the property.
“We had been asking circa $25m for the property and I can say that we met expectations. The vendor is very happy that the buyer found its value,” Wallace said at the time.
The house, which sits on a 3234sqm site, last changed hands 18 years ago for $5.2m and had undergone almost $8m worth of renovations, Reesby earlier told OneRoof.
- Click here to see more properties for sale in Remuera
- Additional reporting, Louise Richardson
