A new owner has been found for a teardown house across the road from the $24 million Auckland estate owned by ZURU Toys billionaire Anna Mowbray.
The listing agents had told OneRoof in November that interest in the 1940s waterfront property on Rawene Avenue, in Westmere, had doubled after it was given a price tag of $3.595m.
The retro four-bedroom home, which sits on 490sqm section with its own boatshed, had a 2021 CV of $4.25m.
It had been owned by one of Auckland’s leading yachtswoman, but after she died in 2004 aged 96, it passed into the hands of her family who turned it into two rental units.
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Ray White listing agent Lawrence von Sturmer could not reveal the exact price, but said it was near the asking price of $3.595m.
The new owners were from East Auckland and had been looking for a site to build their dream home.
“They were trying to find the right position for them and that being waterfront with those views that’s what it offered. It was pretty unique and pretty special,” he said.
The new owners’ children will live in the house in its original condition in the short-term, he said, while they decide whether to renovate or rebuild.
There were five offers tabled on the property and all the buyers had been looking for a site for their dream home, von Sturmer said.
The property had taken a while to sell due to all the owners wanting to carry out their due diligence on the waterfront site.
“Quite a few of the Auckland waterfront properties were affected by Gabrielle so anyone looking at the property wanted to get geotech engineers and planning reports around what they could do on the site. It was 490sqm of land so they needed to make sure they could utilise all of the site and the council has rules around what you can and cannot build on waterfront properties.”
The property first hit the market in September, together with the family’s neighbouring rental on Kotare Avenue, but von Sturmer said it had taken some time for the family to get their heads around its value.
The property was then relisted on its own, with the family deciding to price it at $3.595m.
“It’s been in the family for such a long time that it’s taken a while to get their heads around value. We priced it over the weekend and it’s a realistic asking price,” von Sturmer said in November.
He added that as soon as a price was given, interest and traffic to the listing doubled.
A house on more than 800sqm of waterfront land on Rawene Avenue sold for just over $6m in October 2023. Photo / Supplied
Multi-million-dollar sales on Rawene Avenue are not uncommon.
Nearby is the double property bought by Mowbray from Shrek director Andrew Adamson. The billionaire and her husband, former All Black Ali Williams, have since demolished Adamson’s house and are building a new house complete with proposals for a helicopter pad and helped by famous design names.
In October, another waterfront property, an original three-bedroom cottage on a 895sqm site, sold for just over $6m.
It was the first time the house had been brought to market in 100 years, according to listing agent Edward Pack, of Bayleys, and was pitched for the potential of the land in a street full of award-winning modern architecture.
Two months before, a top-of-the-line villa on Rawene Avenue was sold by Wall Real Estate for $9.65m.
Other top sales on the exclusive stretch in recent years include the $17.68m paid for the modern waterfront home owned by tech start-up entrepreneur Sharon Hunter and former Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell. The home made headlines when it was rented by Hollywood action star Jason Statham and his partner, model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, while he was filming the shark thriller The Meg in Auckland.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Westmere
