The townhouse that gave birth to New Zealand rock legends Split Enz has finally sold.
The elegant four-bedroom terrace on Parnell Road, in Parnell, Auckland, hit the market in May, looking to find a buyer at auction. Unfortunately, no one was in a position to get to the vendors' desired price.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Linda Galbraith said people liked the home, but the market was working against them.
“As one would expect with a property like that, we had strong interest. The problem at the moment is there is good interest in everything I've got but you've got to find buyers who 1), have got confidence, and 2), have got the money and essentially have sold or are on the market.”
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A lot of buyers had not sold their own homes and that was a long process to begin. “We had people wanting to buy it but trying to sell and couldn't get there," she told OneRoof.
“Because this market is so indifferent people make an offer but they don't know how realistic that is in relation to what they are selling.
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“People make an offer conditional on the sale of their house and then the expectation on the sale of their house isn't met and then one of two things happen –they have to come back and renegotiate the purchase price and/or they have to just say ‘look, sorry, I can't go there because I haven't been able to realise the value I was expecting in my house’ so this is where the dilemma is at the moment in the market.”
Luckily, the right buyers did come along. They were renting in Parnell and had been looking in the area for a long time. “They wanted the location 100% and loved what had been done to the house, although they were going to refine it to their tastes.
“They wanted an inner-city pad, they didn't want lots of gardens, they just wanted something well-connected, well-positioned, very convenient.”
The vendors, Ingrid Cronin-Knight and wife Sacha, upgraded the townhouse after buying it in 2015. Photo / Supplied
The interiors are bright and modern. Photo / Supplied
The home has an illustrious history. It was used by Split Enz's founding members as a place to rehearse their songs.
Bass guitarist Mike Chunn had rented the house from his parents in the early 1970s, and together with brother Geoff and friends Tim Finn and Phil Judd, they developed the sound that would soon propel them to fame.
The property changed hands a few times since then, with Galbraith's vendors former New Zealand cricketer Ingrid Cronin-Knight and her wife, Sacha. They bought it in 2015 for $1.62 million, and set about upgrading it for their growing family.
“I was raised in Sydney and I love that Paddington townhouse style,” Cronin-Knight told OneRoof in June.
The couple renovated the bathrooms and laundry, installed double-glazing and heat pumps, and updated the decor with Finnish Marimekko fabrics. They have loved their years in the house but are selling up for extra backyard space (they need room to install cricket nets and artificial turf).
Split Enz bassist Mike Chunn in 2020. His family used to own the entire block of terrace houses. Photo / Michael Craig
Split Enz when they hit the music scene in the early 1970s. Photo / Supplied
Cronin-Knight told OneRoof that Chunn had recently paid a visit, keen to see what the house looked like now.
"Mike Chunn knocked on the door last year. He came in and had a bit of a chat," she said.
"Our place is where the band practised, but next door, the family used to host garden parties. They were the highlight of the season."
Chunn's parents, Jeremiah and Yvonne, had rented the three Edwardian-era homes in the block at first. They planned to build a permanent home in neighbouring Remuera, but their children wanted to stay put, so they bought the block from their landlord and knocked down a few internal walls.
After the band found fame and moved out, Chunn's father converted 473 into his allergy clinic. But in 2001, Chunn acquired the property, and commissioned architect Nicholas Stevens to turn it back into a family home. He sold it three years later for just under $1m.
Galbraith said the house’s past had attracted a lot of people who were fascinated with its history.
She would not say anything about the price, although the house had a CV of $2.325 million.
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