- Brinkburn, a 1923 mansion in Musselburgh, is for sale after a two-decade-long renovation by doctors Ulla Reymann and David Gwynne-Jones.
- The 450sqm home features period details and modern upgrades, and has a CV of $1.58m.
- High-end Dunedin properties face challenges, with strong demand in the first-home buyers’ market.
One of Dunedin’s grandest homes has hit the market for sale after a two-decade-long upgrade.
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Known locally as Brinkburn, the mansion at 3 Belmont Lane, in Musselburgh, was built in 1923 and has been the renovation project of husband and wife doctors Ulla Reymann and David Gwynne-Jones.
The couple bought the tired and dated estate in 2001 for just over $400,000. They knew it would need work, but they didn’t realise the size of the task ahead of them.
Reymann told OneRoof the house was as cold as a fridge when they moved in and they ended up buying the old radiators that the University of Otago’s medical school was selling off as scrap metal.
The vendors have preserved many of the home’s period features. Photo / Supplied
“They were changing over to heat pumps. We found a great heating engineer who plumbed them in for us,” Reymann said. Being warm was a real game changer. “Central heating makes a home really liveable and comfortable,” she said.
Reymann said the couple have renovated and upgraded the home over the years.
She said the house was filled with adventure when their children were growing up. With several staircases and many small and large rooms, it was the perfect “playground” for chase or hide-and-seek.
Reymann said she would love a family with young children to buy their home. “With kids who want to ride their bikes on the big lawn, and kick balls, and scream, and jump. In my heart, that would be my dream.”
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The Galloway family who owned Brinkburn prior to 2001 had considerable information about the home’s history, and passed it on to Reymann and Gwynne-Jones. The home was designed by architects Mandeno and Fraser, and built for the Fenwick family.
When the home turned 100, the Galloways’ four children came back for a visit to check out the renovations. “They loved it. The whole family, all the daughters, came over, and we had a reunion,” Reymann said.
The 450sqm home, which sits on nearly 3000sqm of land, has a CV of $1.58 million and is being marketed for sale by Bayleys agents Pam and Abby Timms. In their listing on OneRoof, the agents highlight the house’s period features.
“With polished timber floors, intricate leadlight windows, rimu joinery, and ornate timber ceilings, this home is a masterpiece of preserved heritage with added contemporary features including diesel-fired central heating and double glazing.”
The house sits on nearly 3000sqm and has been pitched as a "legacy" property by the listing agents. Photo / Supplied
The agents have presented the home as a “legacy” property “awaiting its next chapter”.
The top end of Dunedin’s housing market has been challenging since the slump. “It’s thin air up there,” Tall Poppy agent John Munro told OneRoof.
“Buyers are pretty savvy [at the high end]. It has to be the right house in the right area for them. Everything has to be immaculate.”
Munro, who has a grand home at 211 Highgate, in Roslyn, for sale for $2.3m, said sales were stronger at the lower end of the market, with buyers no longer holding all the power.
Bayleys Dunedin managing director Chris MacLean agreed. “Everyone knows the real rock star market [in Dunedin] is the first-home buyers’ market, with some investors back in,” said MacLean.
Another grand home on the market for sale is 211 Highgate, in Roslyn. Photo / Supplied
High-end properties in Dunedin typically come in two styles: stately mansions and stunning new builds. MacLean said most of the city’s heritage homes were on Māori Hill, but examples could also be found in Musselburgh and The Cove, a small settlement located along Portobello Road on the Otago Peninsula.
Homes priced over $1.5m were considered high-end in Dunedin. “You get twos and some in the threes,” MacLean said, noting that much of the sales activity was driven by executives, empty-nesters, Kiwis returning from overseas, and those moving from Auckland to get more for their money.
Families and university employees typically went for the grand homes, while empty-nesters and professionals leaned towards the modern luxury homes in St Clair.
“There are definitely people who aren’t too worried about where the interest rates are,” he said. “They just want what they want. They’re the kind of buyers that when they see something they want, they will buy it, regardless of what’s happening in the economy.”
MacLean added that many Dunedin residents cited the redevelopment of Dunedin Hospital as a reason to expect another boom in the local residential property market. However, government cutbacks and design revisions to the hospital had slowed the project’s progress. “I don’t think the hospital build is the silver bullet everyone was expecting,” MacLean said.
- 3 Belmont Lane, Musselburgh, Dunedin, is for sale by negotiation
