After a clutch of scruffy little cottages around Ponsonby selling purely for their land potential, now there’s a sweet villa on the Dominion Road end of Mount Eden up for grabs.
Barfoot & Thompson Ellerslie agent Melody Lowe has just listed a turn of last century villa on Lisnoe Avenue, which goes to auction Thursday July 18. The villa has the hallmarks of the ideal do up: intact transitional villa façade, high stud ceilings, wood floors preserved all those years under carpet and lino. There’s a fireplace, an old functional kitchen and bathroom, but nobody’s pretending there isn’t work to bring this dame back to her former glory.
The property, which has a CV of $1.32 million, of which the land is $1.26m, was bought by the owners’ family in 1952, the couple bringing up their five kids here. The elderly man, who passed away last year, was a “colourful character” says Lowe, who spoke Mandarin and visited China at a time when this was not common. The mother, a Cook Island Maori, was the subject of her daughter’s PhD thesis.
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Over the years, the owner added a series of lean-tos to the back of the property that added two more bedrooms and a kitchenette, as well as a garage of sorts to the front. But, in the typical style of the time, these were not consented, notes Lowe.
“The house doesn’t have any heritage protection, so you could knock it down and build your dream home,” she says. “It’s on 392 sq m of land, in zone for Mount Albert and Auckland Grammar Schools, Mt Eden Normal and Kowhai Intermediate.”
But new owners will have to preserve the classic Mount Eden scoria stone walls in the front and back yards, as they are protected. The magnificent volcanic soil produced vegetables for the whole family; the backyard still has compost bins and the old clothes line that speaks of a simpler time in the suburb.
The house has been much loved by the family, but already there’s keen interest from buyers looking for flat, sunny property so close to the city.
Find out more about 6 Lisnoe Ave, Mt Eden, Auckland.
