A landmark house north west of Auckland is on the market for the first time in a decade – and it’s got locals talking.
Ray White agents Jasmine Sergeant and Nicole Redman are marketing a dilapidated Tudor-style house on a 2-hectare property on 8 Kaipara Lake Road, South Head, which they describe as being the most photographed property on South Head.
“For well over a decade, the mystery of the iconic house on the hill has been the subject of conjecture, table talk and intrigue,” their listing declares.
Sergeant revealed the story behind the listing to OneRoof.
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“A former owner relocated it from Orakei and then kind of went a bit crazy without resource consent,” she said. The brick house had some Tudor-style additions, but the interior is now a wreck.
“So they got told to stop doing what they were doing. And then they sold it as a fire sale to my vendors, who’ve just land-banked it,” she said, adding that her vendors had bought the property about a decade ago.
“I won the listing on the back [of the fact] that my pitch was the only one that walks away from the frivolous. There’s no drama. People love a ghost story. But we want to keep away from that.”
However, locals are correct about one thing, the house is uninhabitable. Sergeant said she had sent drone cameras into the house to capture its dilapidated state and won’t be showing the property until health and safety precautions are in place.
The house is on an exclusive estate, Tupare Farms, that was developed nearly 20 years ago with an equestrian focus. Photo / Supplied
The brick house was relocated from Orakei and had a second, Tudor-style floor added to it. Photo / Supplied
“We can’t enter it. It’s dilapidated, it’s got holes in the ceiling, had cows and sheep in there. And a whole layer of pigeon faeces,” she said.
At the moment the property has no power or plumbing or connections to services.
But Sergeant is still excited about the property.
Her advertisement states she’s inviting conversation as to how buyers could envisage its future and its value. She’s even used a favourite realtor phrase “Grand Designs”, but in this case it’s genuine.
“Grand Designs have shown an interest. The programme would like to talk to the buyer when it sells,” she said.
While making no bones about the state of the house, Sergeant said there was an upside. The property, part of the exclusive Tupare Farms estate that was subdivided into 36 lifestyle blocks back in 2005, is the only property where it’s permissible to have a two-storey dwelling.
“The original developers thought, ‘oh, I love that for myself’,” she said.
The agents have been approached by the producers of Grand Designs, keen to talk to a buyer who might take the project on. Photo / Supplied
There are some original details still visible on the dilapidated house, one of the only two-storey places in the Tupare Farms estate. Photo / Supplied
The estate has a body corporate which takes care of things like the sewage plant, mowing the berms and maintenance. When it was first set up, the farm was aimed at the equestrian set, and has a shared community tack room, a community hall and horse trails and walking paths.
“There’s a little boat ramp if you want to go kayaking into the mangroves. Everybody looks after it,” she said, adding that the boat wharf, café and playground up the road at Shelly Beach, also on the Kaipara Harbour, was also a popular local hangout. The area is also handy to Muriwai beach and Woodhill forest for mountain biking and just an hour, off peak, from the city.
The state of the property makes it hard to put a price on it, the agent said. Records show it has a CV of $1.75m, with the land value at $730,000. “We think a base of $1 million-plus," she said. “There are properties up here I would value at $2.5m."
She said her Auckland-based vendors were selling because they had now made other plans.
“They’re going to stay in Auckland for the moment until all their plans come together. It was in their plans to set about and have a life up here. But then, actually they’ve got a nicer plan down the line.”
- 8 Kaipara Lake Road, South Head, is for sale by way of price by negotiation
