A luxuriously renovated mansion on Auckland’s Remuera Road has hit the market with a $32 million price tag.
The 900sqm five-bedroom Roy Binney-designed house, built in 1915 and completely revamped over the past 20 years by the current owners, is being marketed by Kings of Remuera agents Terry and Diana King, and Lisa Grant.
Terry King told OneRoof he was confident 532 Remuera Road would sell for what would be a record asking price for a New Zealand house.
“We only sell houses by setting a price, based on a registered valuation and what we know of price data. And we isolate the buyers who fit the property and have the budget.
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“For this house, it’s a matter of finding the right buyer who is attuned to the architecture and appreciates what’s been done here. There might only be five people who fit the bill,” King said.
“This will be the most expensive house in Remuera. It will have owners like the current ones, and the ones before, who are custodians, who appreciate what was done.”
Remuera’s biggest sale price for a residential property is $29m, set in December 2021 for a 979sqm modern Lawrence Sumich-designed house set on a 4188sqm section, also off Remuera Road.
The house was designed by Roy Binney, and is described as neo-Georgian Arts and Crafts. Photo / Supplied
The house has a garden designed by top Australian landscaper Paul Bangay, and includes a pool house/gin room, gym, massage room, a tennis court and guest accommodation. Photo / Supplied
Last year, just two houses in the suburb, one of the city’s most expensive, fetched over $20m – a five-bedroom glass and concrete home on Burwood Crescent that went for $20.6m in May, and the Victoria Avenue mansion, formerly owned by financier Martin Reesby, that settled in July for $23.8m after a deal was inked in 2022.
The top house price in Auckland is still the $38.9m paid for financier Mark Hotchin’s former home on Huriaro Place, Orakei, over 10 years ago, although that national record was bumped by last year’s deal on a lifestyle property out of Queenstown which has not settled yet.
Only one other Auckland property, the sprawling lifestyle home formerly known as the Dotcom mansion in Coatesville, has sold for over $32m. The 12-bedroom property was bought by the ZURU Toys’ Mowbray family in 2016 for $32.5m, and has since been extensively refurbished by replacing the pool and landscaping, and adding a heliport and helipad, outdoor kitchen and gym.
The kitchen and cabinetry through much of the house is Poliform, a luxury brand from Italy. Photo / Supplied
The New York-style bar off the kitchen-dining courtyard was added on land acquired from the neighbours. Photo / Supplied
King said buyers will be drawn to the provenance of the house, designed by Binney for his mother when he had returned to New Zealand after working with one of England’s master architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens.
At one point in the 1970s, the house, known as Guisnes Court, had been carved into two residences, before being converted back to a single home by the previous owners in 2000.
It sits two doors down from another Binney house, the mansion sold by developers Paula and Simon Herbert for a then-Remuera record price of $26m in 2018.
“It’s international, with pedigree and class, not something modern that was just knocked up,” King said, describing the brick house with tile roof, leadlight windows and original panelling as neo-Georgian Arts and Crafts-style.
The pool house, known as the gin room, was recently updated and refurbished. Next to it are a massage room and gym, with the tennis court on the level below. Photo / Supplied
“What they’ve done is bring this house up to be as relevant today as it was when it was built.”
The owners, who bought the semi-renovated house in 2000 (OneRoof records show they paid $2.815m at the time), have completely modernised the property, including adding state-of-the-art electronics and air conditioning, over a series of stages. King said it was a completely up-to-date house within the heritage mansion.
In 2007, the owners purchased land from their neighbour’s section to add a four-car garage with a bedroom and sitting suite above it. That also added space for a dining and barbecue courtyard off the kitchen, capped by a spectacular New York-style entertaining bar with onyx feature walls. The traditional layout of the reception floor was retained – including a 57sqm living room with double-height six-metre ceilings that was built as a ballroom for the original owner, Binney’s mother.
The billiard room was retained, although the former study/library is now a home theatre and the former dining room and loggia are now more informal family rooms.
Upstairs is the master suite, two more bedrooms with their own bathrooms and, above the garage, a bedroom suite with a sitting room that is currently used as an office and meeting room. The former servants’ quarters in the attic have been turned into a Pilates room.
The grand staircase, with original leadlight windows, features an 18-light Murano glass chandelier. Photo / Supplied
The kitchen has Poliform, imported from Italy, appliances as well as American Wolf and Sub-zero fridge and oven and Calacatta gold marble benches. Throughout the house the light fixtures are a mix of Italian Murano glass chandeliers and modern crystal from ECC and Matisse.
King said no expense was spared on the update of the house, with nine bathrooms and a powder room featuring marble and fixtures from luxury Italian brand Boffi, including a stone soaking tub in the principal ensuite bathroom.
The garden was designed by Australian master landscape architect Paul Bangay, with updates by Auckland’s Suzanne Turley, and includes a swimming pool and spa, home gym and massage rooms and a generous garden-style pavilion called the gin room – all housed in plaster and tile buildings that mimic the style and symmetry of the original Binney house and surrounded by clipped hedges.
Below the pool and gym is a self-contained guest suite overlooking the tennis court.
The agent is billing the house as “unparalleled perfection” and said he is welcoming other agents to bring their qualified buyers through the property.
“You can describe our involvement as sole agents and gatekeepers for the property,” King said.
High-profile listings with advertised prices are a rarity in New Zealand. The $32m asking price for 532 Remuera Road is the highest for a New Zealand house. The highest overall asking price for a New Zealand residential property was $42m, set in 2021 for the super-penthouse apartment at the Pacifica tower, in central Auckland. The property failed to sell at that level, and the Pacifica's developers subsequently splitting the 1219sqm space into three smaller apartments.
- 532 Remuera Road, in Remuera, Auckland, has an asking price of $32m
