Two waterfront properties on Auckland's North Shore sold for almost $18 million earlier this year, OneRoof can reveal.
The homes - one on Cheltenham Road, in Devonport and the other on Beach Road, on the cliffs above Castor Bay - were both snapped up by new Kiwi and ex-pat buyers, said the Bayleys agent who marketed them, Victoria Bidwell.
The Cheltenham Road home, a four-bedroom, four-bathroom home right on the beach, sold for $8.35m, under its CV of $9.1m. It had last been renovated in the 1980s, Bidwell said, and was seen as a do-up opportunity.
“It’s a very beautiful site, elevated above the beach so it’s private, on flat land and very sunny,” she said, adding that it was hidden from the street at the end of a private treelined drive and surrounded by tropical gardens.
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“The buyers are an ex-pat family returning from overseas. They’ll do a wonderful job. The house had all the right bones, and it is still single level.”
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Bidwell said that renovated properties on Cheltenham Beach could easily command $10m, so any investment in updating the property would pay-off.
The agent said the Beach Road property, which sits on 5263sqm prime waterfront land, went for $9.5m, less than the CV of $12.23m. The new New Zealander buyer has plans to update the 1980s-era four-bedroom house.
“It’s an incredible piece of land, but the house needed completely renovating."
Bidwell had told OneRoof last year that the section was one of the largest waterfront sites left on the North Shore. “It’s an exceptional property, it really is a generational property to keep. This may never present itself again,” she had said.
Ex-pats also picked up a beachfront home on Cheltenham Road, Devonport, for $8.35m. Photo / Supplied
The Cheltenham Road property will be renovated by the new owners who prized the location and privacy from the beach. Photo / Supplied
Bidwell told OneRoof this week that Castor Bay had some very expensive estates, built on huge parcels of land so there was room to add a tennis court, multiple family guest spaces, in a country-style setting.
She said winter had been slow in the top end of the market, but enquiry was starting to come back. “It takes a while for the market to move up the price range. We’re seeing movement in the $1.5m to $2m first, then it goes up to $4m, before we see it at this $8m plus range."
OneRoof data shows that such big estates rarely come to market on the North Shore. The last big sale in the area was four years ago, when a 2665sqm site with a five-bedroom resort-style estate on nearby Red Bluff Rise, Campbells Bay, sold for $9.25m.
In July 2021, a trio of properties on Clifton Road, above Takapuna beach, sold for $18.76m. The properties, in three separate titles with the older homes dating from the 1920s to the 1970s, sat on a combined 4300sqm.
The four-bedroom house on Beach Road, Castor Bay, was built in the 1980s to host America’s Cup yachties, musicians and artists. Photo / Supplied
The new owners plan to update the solid house on Beach Road, Castor Bay, sitting on one of the North Shore's biggest coastal sites. Photo / Supplied
The waterfront record for the area is still the $28.888m paid for a house on a waterfront 4396sqm site on O'Neill's Avenue, Takapuna, over six years ago.
The son of the owners of the Beach Road property earlier told OneRoof of his keen sailing family’s America’s Cup connections, hosting many of the who’s who of yachting at parties at the house and watching the racing from the lawn.
His late parents, emigrated from Hanover, Germany in the early 1980s where his engineer father built the 410sqm house atop the Castor Bay clifftops.
Art and music played a major role in the home’s history too, as the father was a composer and musician. The living room’s acoustics were perfected for concerts on the grand piano, while the walls of the house featured the family’s art collection and works of visiting artists.
The two children enjoyed going on adventures, building huts and playing in the stream that runs through the back garden.
“We hope that whoever lives here next will be able to create equally wonderful memories,” said the family representative.
- Click here to see more houses for sale on Auckland’s North Shore
- This story was updated to reflect the buyers for Beach Road were new New Zealanders, not expats.
