A multi-million-dollar four-bedroom house for sale at 59 Cliff Road, in Auckland's St Heliers, is billed as having a “front row, forever” view.
But one of the listing photos may have inadvertently given buyers a front row view of more than just the ocean.
The 1940s Mediterranean-style house on a 607sqm cliff top site sits above one of Auckland’s popular nudist beaches, Ladies Bay.
In the main listing photo, two bathers can be seen on the beach, and it appears they are not wearing swimsuits.
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The three-storey house has a 2021 CV of $6.1 million – $5.4m of that for the land – and is zoned for development. It has a swimming pool, decking and garaging and parking for six cars. Records show it last sold for $2.15m in 2004.
Listing agents Paul Neshausen and Kerry Cattrall, of Barfoot & Thompson, are pitching the property as one to either renovate or re-develop.
Neshausen joked that the nude sunbathers weren’t part of the sales pitch.
However, he said the real value of the Cliff Road house was tied up in its cliff-top location. Buyers should be expecting to pay over $8m – well over the CV - for properties like this, he said.
“It’s most likely a bowler. There are people prepared to pay that because of the scarcity factor. They’ll be building their forever home, which for a high-spec home could be over $12,000 per square metre.
“When it’s a big chunk of land, it’s not about the CV.”
The agent added that five years ago another property a few doors down went for $17.6m. It now has a CV of $21m.
A closer inspection of the beach shot shows two blurry but seemingly nude sunbathers. Photo / John Mailley
The four-bedroom property is on one of St Heliers' most desirable streets. Photo / John Mailley
Cliff Road is one of the suburb's most desirable addresses, with a similarly dated property selling for $6.5m last year.
The beach below, which has been known for more than 100 years as being nudist-friendly, hit the headlines last summer when locals complained to the police about people having sex on the grassy banks – an activity not condoned by the New Zealand Naturist Federation.
The federation’s marketing coordinator Alice Dewet told the New Zealand Herald that such activity would not be tolerated at a naturist club.
Instead, it was family friendly and about “exposing people to natural bodies, but not in a sexual way”, she said.
- 59 Cliff Road, in St Heliers, Auckland, is for sale by way of negotiation
