The late owner of one of the last do-ups in Auckland’s Kingsland was a trailblazer, a protestor and so much more, says her son.
Jan Wilcox, who died in August aged 87, was the first woman in Napier to be seen wearing a trouser suit in public, Brandon Wilcox told OneRoof.
“And mum being mum, it wasn’t just any trouser suit, it was a shiny metallic silver one,” he said.
“She had cars stopping in the middle of the street to gawp at her walking past and people running out of shops to watch her walk by.”
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That was the 1950s, and later, in the early 80s, Jan and Brandon’s father were among the many facing down baton charges from the police during the Springbok rugby tour protests at Eden Park.
Brandon said it was either ironic or fitting she ended up buying a house in First Avenue, which was within walking distance of the famous Auckland rugby grounds.
On Saturday, her house, built in 1903, sold at an onsite auction for $1.426 million – less than the $2.025m CV but higher than what the family expected, and a strong price for a do-up house which had been marketed as an “as is, but look where it is.”
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Jan is believed to have bought her house from a World War II veteran after her divorce and she lived there for about 35 years. Brandon said the house was tired even when she bought it and she had great plans to renovate which were never enacted.
“She wanted to do it up and she knew exactly what she wanted to do and she’d been collecting building materials. She had hundreds and hundreds of bricks stored in different locations around the property but, you know, for whatever reason the plan never eventuated, and the house just slowly deteriorated around her.
“But she had a good eye for property and she bought a really good location. Best street in Kingsland, and the best part of the best street in Kingsland so she bought very well.”
A picture of the property’s late owner, Jan Wilcox, as a baby. Photo / Supplied
Wilcox had wanted to give the house a makeover but never got the chance to do it before her death. Photo / Supplied
Listing agent Marc Collins, from Barfoot & Thompson, said he invited half of Kingsland to the auction, and it worked. He got a strong audience for the sale, with five buyers registering to bid.
Renovated properties in the street can fetch in the high $2ms but Collins said this one would cost a lot to renovate because there was “nothing that doesn’t need to be done” – from the 1960s/1970s kitchen to the rusty roof to the water ingress around the chimney, to remedying the “nicotine” yellow paint job, as Jan was a smoker.
Renovating would be worth it in the long run, Collins said: “If you look at what houses across the road sold for that were done up, like $2.4m and $2.9m, you can see investment in the area is worth it if you’re going to stay in the house.”
There were fewer do-ups available these days and buyers’ interest in them waxed and waned according to building costs but Jan’s house had been a classic case of worst house on the best street.
“There's still a few rickety houses but I’d say that would have taken the cookie if they’d had a competition, just because of the state of it and how she had so much stuff there.
Another home in the suburb, on Fourth Avenue, fetched $1.65m last month. Photo / Supplied
“When they were clearing the house, because one of the brothers has been living in the house clearing it out ready for sale, and I think they've had four skips go and then when they got the bobcat to tidy up the backyard the driver got carried away and something like a truckload of stuff, bricks and all sorts.”
Collins thought the new owner was planning to live in the house and renovate.
“It's a good site. Somebody could do something pretty special and push the back right out and have a nice aspect towards the north, because it’s facing the north.”
People who came to the open homes were intrigued by Jan’s memorabilia accumulated over the years, but most said the renovation job was too big for them.
“I heard people talking about $500,000. That’s a bit optimistic.” But Collins said the house was perfectly salvageable.
“You can salvage anything if you want to. You could rip the guts out of it, you know. If you went in there and stripped it all back you’d have a shell, a skeleton of the house which you could do something with for sure.”
First Avenue would be the top choice for people who liked Kingsland as it was close to the strip of shops and eateries and had a train station.
It is the top road of four running parallel to the northwestern motorway, with Fourth Avenue the lowest and nearest to the motorway (a house on Fourth Avenue recently sold under the hammer for $1.65m).
Collins said the prices being fetched show how areas are transformed and become sought-after.
“Back in the day that was sort of working class, poor man’s area where you could buy a house because all of those cottages down there were very entry level.”
Brandon said that for him and his siblings, the sale of Jan’s house was a reminder of their colourful, creative, larger-than-life, intelligent and fiery mum.
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