A more than 100-year-old villa in Auckland’s Grey Lynn could sell for $1 million below its CV when it heads to auction later this month.
Listing agent Jacqui Vaughan-Kells, from Barfoot & Thompson, told OneRoof buyer interest in the four-bedroom do-up at 13 Francis Street had been in the low $2m range, even though the property had a rateable value of $3.05m.
She felt that $3m-plus sales of renovated properties nearby and the land quality had contributed to the high valuation. “The council doesn’t come through your house when setting the CV. The CV is due to the size of the site.”
The high CV had put some buyers off, a story repeated by other agents selling do-ups in Grey Lynn and Ponsonby. “It’s definitely not in the threes. We are expecting it to sell in the twos,” she said.
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Vaughan-Kells has pitched the property as a renovator’s dream, adding in her listing that the vendor had “moved on, and this property will be sold!”
The villa is near-empty inside but is packed with history. More than 100 years before the birth of Instagram, owner Ernest Binns captured every aspect of his family’s lives on camera.
The Binns children and their pet monkey, Jacko, posed for hundreds of photographs, which are now held by Auckland Libraries and are an engaging record of life in Auckland in the early 1900s.
One of Ernest Binns' photos of 13 Francis Street. Photo / Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
Vincent Lionel Binns with Jacko the monkey at the back of 13 Francis Street. Photo / Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
Ernest and Emily Binns lived in the villa until their deaths in the early 1940s, after which the house was turned into a boarding house. It stayed that way until 1984, when it was snapped up for $40,000 by Mary Subritzky and her friend and business partner Elsie Awatere, Subritzky’s son Maurice told OneRoof.
Awatere, mother of former MP Donna Awatere-Huata, died in 1991 and Mary Subritzky bought her share of the home and rented it out.
Initially, Mary ran the rental at arm’s length but she decided to move in and become the “house mother”, said Maurice.
“She had quite a few characters from Ponsonby and she had stories of their screaming and fighting, and also trying to help them out, because my mum was quite sympathetic towards them,” said Maurice. “A lot of them didn’t have very nice lives.”
13 Francis Street had been run as a boarding house and is being sold as a do-up. Photo / Supplied
By the time Maurice returned from his OE in the 1990s, the boarding rooms were occupied by Mormon missionaries. Both Maurice and his sister moved in around this time and remained in the home until after Mary died in 2018. The siblings have now built new homes on Meola Road, in Point Chevalier, and moved there.
“My sister decided to build her dream home, and at the front of her property I have a two-bedroom property,” said Maurice. “If I had the money, I would have stayed at 13 Francis Street and developed it myself, because it’s a lovely street and the neighbours are nice.”
13 Francis Street isn’t the only do-up in the area for sale. Several doors down is 7 Francis Street, which goes to auction on October 24. The four-bedroom, one-bathroom home sits on 690sqm of land and has a CV of $3.2m.
Ray White agent Dylan Tracey said the home has been owned by the same family for decades. “It’s a very long-standing Grey Lynn family who love the area.”
Both 13 and 7 Francis Street are in the mixed housing urban zone.
Also going to auction at the end of the month is 7 Francis Street. Photo / Supplied
A deceased estate at 69 Ardmore Road, in Ponsonby, has a CV of $3.65m. Photo / Supplied
At 69 Ardmore Road, in neighbouring Ponsonby, is a deceased estate with a CV of $3.65m. Listing agent Logan Campbell, of Ray White, said the home had been owned by the same family for at least 70 years.
Although property records suggest the home was built in 1910, Campbell had been told by a neighbour that it was most likely built in 1853. “It’s definitely the oldest house I have sold,” he said. “The walls are kauri plank.”
Campbell said the owner had been a collector in his lifetime and there were several old cars around the property when he first viewed it. “We had to get four cars taken off the property. They had to be cut up because they couldn’t roll. They were rusted into the ground.”
The four-bedroom, one-bathroom house sits on 415sqm in a single house zone. It goes to auction on October 20.
- 13 Francis Street, in Grey Lynn, Auckland, goes to auction on October 23
