A glamorous Wellington townhouse that was rumoured to have undergone an extensive $10 million renovation has sold for just under $5m, OneRoof can reveal.
The three-storey Georgian-style home on Oriental Parade, which sold in February, has stunning views across the bay and has a 2021 RV of $4.665m.
The sale price of $4.915m falls short of Oriental Bay’s record of $5.31m last year for the Parisian-style apartment sold by Wellington art collector Chris Parkin in April 2022.
That’s $1m more than what the couple paid for two years earlier, but still well shy of the capital city’s highest sale price so far – $8m for a Wellywood mansion on Cheviot Road, Lowry Bay, that sold in June last year and settled earlier this year.
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One of the agents who brokered the Oriental Parade deal, Craig Lowe, of Lowe & Co, told OneRoof that information about the buyers was confidential. The property had been marketed as looking for buyer interest above $4.5m and had been "hotly contested”, Lowe said.
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“It was a high quality for a high-end home, and there’s always a market. These buyers are not thinking about the market going up or down, they just want a home.”
Lowe said that in the upper and upper middle brackets of the Wellington market – buyers with budgets of between $2.5m and $3.5m, even over $5m – there had been a flight to quality.
“They want highly renovated homes. As building costs have gone up, they want something perfectly formed, beautifully done. We’re definitely seeing that at the upper end, over $5m range," he said.
“Over $3.5m is high end in Wellington. There are very few over $5m."
Lowe added that the $5.1m deal he brokered for a villa on Brougham Street, Mount Victoria, was one of the highest recently.
The Oriental Parade townhouse was picked up in a mortgagee sale in 2017 for $3m but was rumoured to have undergone an eight-figure renovation before that.
The townhouse is one of several luxury homes that attracted a lot of buyer interest in the capital. Photo / Supplied
The marble kitchen includes a dining room and a custom-made French La Cornue cooker. Photo / supplied
Lowe, who marketed the property with colleague Elise Boulieris, told OneRoof in January that the townhouse was unlike anything he had seen in his 23 years in the business.
“We don’t know how much was spent on it exactly. There were rumours of maybe $10m or $11m but we don’t have evidence of that,” he said, adding that the cost to do the work might even be more than today’s often quoted new-build prices of at least $20,000 per square metre for a luxury house.
The townhouse boasted immaculate hand-crafted French polished joinery in the kitchen, panelled reception rooms, entry hall and stairs, and bedrooms, along with marble bathrooms, inlaid tile floors and a luxury kitchen complete with a custom-made La Cornue French cooker, large island and butler’s pantry.
When the property first went on the market as a mortgagee sale in 2016, it was described as a “rare Wellington treasure”.
The townhouse offers two living rooms, two dining rooms, media/games room, a secure room for storage, bedrooms, marble bathrooms and a luxury kitchen all spread out over three floors. Photo / Supplied
Lowe said the property also offered two living rooms, two dining rooms, a ground floor media/games room behind the double garage, and a secret room which could be used for storage or security for documents.
Underpinning the renovation, which took three years to complete some 15 years ago, is a sophisticated air conditioning system, high-tech security and a lift for future-proofing. While the lifts and air systems made the house attractive for downsizers, Lowe said the large terraces on the back of the building made it equally appealing to families.
“The attention to detail and the position – it’s the best position in the bay, facing the city and sunsets.”
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