Two waterfront houses 15 minutes apart by foot but poles apart in style are for sale in New Plymouth.
One has echoes of the city’s grand past, the other projects a flash future. And compared to similar homes in the country’s bigger cities, both could be considered bargain buys.
The waterfront villa at 68 Whiteley Street, in Moturoa, is listed with Rachael Whitaker, from Robert Angus Real Estate.
The renovated 100-year-old home, which once boasted servants’ quarters, has an RV of $1.18 million and is being pitched as an entry-level waterfront buy.
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Several streets away, Harcourts agent Shelley Landon-Lane is marketing a two-bedroom bachelor pad from the 1990s.
The architecturally-designed home comes complete with black marble floors, a black kitchen and a curved room with a spa pool in which you can sit and watch the Tasman Sea.
This house has four flights of stairs which owner Roger Tonkin, a “legendary” radio broadcaster in Taranaki, said he and wife Jeni Quince, both now in their seventies, have regarded as “our own private gymnasium”.
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Landon-Lane said the house sat on a very narrow site and the only way to build was up.
The brief was to design a little house but the architect, Eldon Peters, had a bigger vision, she said.
“He wanted it to follow the landscape so at the time there was no house above it and the idea was for the property to loom up out of the ground which is exactly what’s happened.”
That was 30 years ago but the house looked as modern and relevant today. It is three levels and while there are a lot of stairs – industrial checker plate metallic ones with metal grill and banister – the tread is not deep so they are easy enough to navigate.
The Weston Street home boasts black marble floors and a black kitchen. Photo / Supplied
The stairs have given the owners - broadcaster Roger Tonkin and wife Jeni Quince - a workout. Photo / Supplied
“The upstairs level is the bedroom with the curved roof. Now that, back in the day in 1994, that was considered pretty out there,” said Landon-Lane.
She said the house was famous in New Plymouth as “the White House” because it was painted white, and it has been recently painted inside and out.
“The outside is called Resene Plain White but there’s nothing plain about the house at all. Sometimes in certain lights it actually glows.”
Inside there are black marble floors and a black kitchen, and the house is lock-and-leave with “absolutely no garden – no dirt, nothing”.
Mustang car enthusiast Tonkin, who was a radio breakfast announcer for years and has been a track announcer for the speedway for over 40 years, said the property suited the couple’s lifestyle and stood out not just for the design but the views.
“I’m standing here looking out over the port across the Tasman Sea, watching ships coming in.”
The Weston Street home overlooks the harbour and is close to the beach. Photo / Supplied
Mustangs in the garage. Tonkin is a fan of the car. Photo / Supplied
The house is sunny with views throughout and is both low maintenance and striking: “It’s a bit rare. There’s not a lot like this in New Plymouth – it was way ahead of its time.”
Landon-Lane said the house goes to auction on September 17 and she expected it to sell for upwards of the $870,000 RV.
She said the New Plymouth housing market had been sluggish as it had been flooded with homes and non-committed buyers but properties on for under $600,000 were flying out the door because the market for those was wider, including first-home buyers, people downsizing from debt and retirees.
She said she was getting a lot of interest in the bachelor-pad house because it was such a showpiece with amazing views.
The other house, known as Pirimoana, is understood to have connections to a former mayor of New Plymouth, James Paul, who established the Egmont Brewery and who died in 1906.
A four-bedroom two-storey villa at 68 Whiteley Street, in Moturoa, has been pitched as entry-level waterfront. Photo / Supplied
The house has been refreshed but still bears the stamp of its architect, Thomas H Bates. Photo / Supplied
The Puke Ariki (combined museum and library) website, said the two-storey residence was designed for Alice Paul (his widow) by another well-known local architect, Thomas H Bates, in 1918.
The site said the estimated cost of the build back then was 1600 pounds.
Whitaker said when she goes into the house she can imagine living there “back in the day with the old big hoopy dresses. It was probably in the middle of something quite rural, farmland and that sort of thing”.
She said the servants’ quarters was like a fourth bedroom and a little separate from the house and was probably where the maid lived.
Whitaker said she was marketing it as entry level because of the shared driveway and because it was an older home along the waterfront, but she pointed out that it had been renovated and was an “architectural gem”.
The villa overlooks the water. It is for sale by way of tender. Photo / Supplied
“If you’re a character lover and you love all the charm that character offers it’s definitely for you, and it’s got beautiful views.”
The house also overlooks the port area of New Plymouth where the view is “active” with ships coming in and out.
If the villa was in Herne Bay, one of Auckland’s most expensive parts of town, it would likely sell for millions dollars, and Whitaker said it was situated among large homes being built in the area.
While New Plymouth has pockets of historic homes, this sort of house along the waterfront was seldom found, she said, and she was getting a lot of interest from Auckland and from expats.
- 5 Weston Street, in Moturoa, New Plymouth, goes to auction on September 17; 68 Whiteley Street, in the same suburb, is for sale by way of tender, closing September 19
