Some of the grand homes in Auckland’s Mount Eden are earmarked for demolition. And that’s even before the city council has finalised plans that are expected to remove protections for up to a quarter of character homes in the city.
Last month, campaigners failed to stop the council from stripping away the “special character” protections in many of the city’s older suburbs. Councillors voted to reduce the number of protected homes from about 21,000 homes to 15,000.
Many home-owners in Mount Eden have expressed horror that their neighbourhoods and streets could now be “blighted” by terrace house developments, and agents have said the loss of the special character protections is a concern for buyers.
Jared Cooksley, business owner of Ray White Mount Eden, told OneRoof that buyers looking in the suburb were now asking agents questions about what might be built next door to the homes they were interested in. “They want to know if there could be terrace houses next door, but no one knows yet,” he says.
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Harcourts agent Abbey Davis said she always get the question: “What is going to be next door to me?”
And it’s not just in Mount Eden Village where owners, buyers and sellers are worried. Davis lives on the Sandringham border of Mount Eden. “I would be gutted if it happened in our street. People don’t want to live next to terrace housing. Especially if they’re paying $4m.”
The wrecking has already been at work in the suburb, though, flattening old homes that are just too far gone to save, says Cooksley.
A five-bedroom home at 722 Mount Eden Road earmarked for future development. Photo / Supplied
A boarding house for sale at 2 Woodside Road, in Mount Eden. Photo / Supplied
One such example is the rambling two-storey, five-bedroom house that sits on a 2228sqm section at 722 Mount Eden Road. The triple grammar zone property, which is listed with Ray White agent Jennifer Alexandre, is looking for buyers with budgets of $5.5m-plus and has been pitched as a development play.
The listing does not show any photos of inside the house, and instead highlights the property’s credentials as a development site, citing its potential to host anyone of the following options: six large executive homes, eight to ten standalone townhouses or 12 to 14 attached duplex or terrace units.
Also lined up for the wrecking ball is 2 Woodside Road, a 20-bedroom boarding house that brings in $342,000 a year in rental income. The property sits on 1688sqm section and is, according to the listing agents, Barfoot & Thompson’s Lawrence Yuan and Ellie Wang, ripe for redevelopment: “The opportunities are endless: continue to run the established business or completely re-develop the site, building your dream estate.”
Two more large homes earmarked for demolition are 560 Mount Eden Road and 15 Balmoral Road, with the agents selling them making no bones about their potential future.
560 Mount Eden Road offers buyers 860sqm section and approved resource consent, and comes with a CV of $3.175m, while the five-bedroom home at 15 Balmoral Road is being pitched as a “do-up bargain” and comes with an asking price of $1.595m.
A “do-up” at 15 Balmoral Road, Mount Eden, has an asking price of $1.595m. Photo / Supplied
A new-build villa for sale on Marsden Avenue. Photo / Supplied
Cooksley says the uncertainty around developments will have some effect on the local market, but the recent cooling in the suburb is largely being driven by interest rate rises.
The latest OneRoof Valocity house value figures show the average property value in the suburb has dropped 8.4% ($188,000) in the last six months to $2.042m.
However, Cooksley says and other agents say the top of the market is faring better than the bottom.
Many of the homes selling in the upper price bracket are the “grand old” villas and bungalows that have been renovated and now sport a luxury finish. UP Real Estate agent Lisa Pringle says they are typically snapped up by buyers looking for “looking for everything that Mount Eden has to offer, like the village and the transport”, but the main reason is education, with much of the suburb in the prized double grammar zone.
One of Pringle’s villa listings, a four-bedroom home on Marsden Avenue, stands apart from the renovated villas that she has sold. Despite a stand of mature Puriri and double verandas, the home isn’t old at all. The replica villa is newly built, says Pringle, and is appealing to buyers who don’t want to do a renovation and all the upkeep that comes with a 120-year-old home. “It’s a grand new home with the double glazing and concrete slab below the floorboards,” she says.
- Find more properties for sale in Mount Eden here.
