- Villa with ties to Auckland’s early Chinese community sold for over $2m.
- The Grey Lynn home, bought in 1955 for £3000, was a hub for migrants.
- Ray White agent Richard Thode notes strong demand for renovation opportunities in the area.
A Grey Lynn do-up with ties to Auckland’s early Chinese community was snapped up within 10 days of going to market.
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The new owners paid north of $2 million and while that was shy of the $2.975m RV, Ray White agent Richard Thode said the price was strong for a “raw” villa which would need a fair amount of financial input to restore and modernise.
More than 40 groups went through in a week, signalling a demand for that sort of opportunity in that location, he said.
“The fact it was a corner site and obviously a good address certainly helped.”
The five surviving children of Ming Wood and Yong See Gin: Anne, Shirley, Connie, Rollan and Ronnie (the oldest, Ray Ming, died in 2013). Photo / Supplied
The family bought the house in a then unfashionable part of the city for £3000. Photo / Supplied
While $1m or more could easily be spent doing the house up, the former owners, Ming Wood and Yong See Gin, bought the four-bedroom house in 1955 for around 3000 pounds.
A OneRoof article told how the couple had outgrown a two-bedroom flat above their laundry business on Pitt Street in the CBD.
Back then, the blocks around Pitt Street, Greys Avenue and Hobson Street were Auckland’s unofficial Chinatown, said the story.
The couple’s children, Connie Gin, 82, and Ronnie, 78, told OneRoof how Ming Wood had gone back to China in 1929 for an arranged marriage to Yong See but then did not see her again for 11 years.
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“Mum was pregnant, and had been left at home because at that time [Chinese] women could not come to New Zealand,” Connie said.
The couple’s first son, Ray Ming, was born in China but did not meet his father until he was 10, and the couple went on to have five more children.
“They changed the policies in 1939 and 1940 after the Japanese invasion of China, so women and children could come out,” said Connie, who also said New Zealand was referred to as “the Gold Mountain”.
The Grey Lynn house became a stopping point for Chinese migrants coming to New Zealand, and in those days there was a toilet on the outside porch, an outside laundry, high interior ceilings, and there is still an elegant return verandah and original gingerbread wood trims.
The property still has the original wash house, with outside toilet, and garage. Photo / Supplied
One of the original fireplaces still in the house. Photo / Supplied
Thode said the family was happy with the sale price and while it was time for them to move on, their memories would never go away.
“They’ll drive past for many years to come and watch it evolve into something that it deserves to be.
“I’ve seen some amazing transformations of these sorts of villas. You’d be surprised, you blow out the back and you bring it back to its glory but at the same time you add some modernism to it and the next minute you’ve got something worth a significant amount of money, and people will pay that for a finished product.”
Thode said while some people looked for opportunities such as this, a larger group wanted the finished product.
“These things aren’t for the faint-hearted because they’ll take time and cost a lot of money.”
A four-bedroom deceased estate at 18 Wairua Road, in Auckland's Remuera, is up for grabs. Photo / Supplied
The property belonged to a doctor and has an RV of $2.98m. Photo / Supplied
He had another older villa on the market, this one in Remuera, describing it as “extremely original” but cool.
The deceased estate had belonged to a prominent doctor in the area who raised four sons there, one of them architect Nicholas Stevens, of Stevens Lawson Architects.
Stevens said his father bought the house in 1972 and lived there for 50 years.
“Dr William Stevens, known as Dr Bill, was a much-loved vocational General Practitioner in Remuera and Mt Eden who practiced until he was 83.
“He was one of the last doctors in Auckland to continue making house calls, often in his vintage Mark II Jaguar. “
Dr Bill moved his surgery from Upland Road to Wairua Road in 1983, converting and extending the front two bedrooms after his sons had left home and practising there for 25 years until he retired in 2008.
“After that he used this space as a workshop for making ‘shaker style’ wooden furniture which he would give to his family. In the last few years it was occupied by his friend and house keeper.”
Thode’s listing said the four-bedroom, two-bathroom house was a transitional villa with potential for investors, developers or people wanting to create their dream home.
It sits on 607sqm of freehold land within the Terrace Housing and Apartment Building Zone, and is next to a park near shops and cafes and is in double grammar zone.
The property, which has an RV of $2.95m, is being sold by negotiation.
Thode told OneRoof there had been strong interest in the property which also demonstrated the demand for these types of do-ups: “We have a love affair for villas and bungalows in New Zealand.”
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