The Waiheke beachfront bach that invited buyers to "try before you buy" sold in February for $10.5 million, OneRoof can now reveal.
The five-bedroom house on a 1700sqm beachfront section at Palm Road, Palm Beach, made headlines over the summer when the listing agents, Ollie and Graham Wall of Wall Real Estate, offered buyers the chance to try out their next summer house with a weekend stay.
While the offer was taken up, the eventual buyer was not one of the test drivers, Ollie Wall told OneRoof.
“It’s funny, the only ones who asked to try were tongue-in-cheek,” he said.
Start your property search
“But the buyers were a Kiwi family who knew the bach well. Long term their plan is to have it for generations, they’ve got family spread all over the country, they want to spend every Christmas there.”
Read more:
- Court-ordered sale: ‘Rough’ house with leak sells for $501,000 amid bidding frenzy
- Medieval castle in the middle of Te Awamutu up for grabs
- ‘Bargains’ turn up in Wellington suburbs where house values have dropped by almost a quarter
Wall added that the best bit was that the buyers plan to keep the 23-year-old architecturally-designed house just the way it is – including the sleepout, a former railway carriage rescued from Parnell’s White Heron hotel before it was demolished, and the old school garage bar and pool room.
“It’s not going to be bowled. They’re keeping it in the Kiwi way.”
The architect-designed house on Palm Road, Palm Beach, built in 2000, will be retained by the new owners. Photo / Supplied
The sleepout is an old railway carriage that formerly featured in the Parnell's legendary White Heron Hotel. Photo / Supplied
The Walls’ invitation to clients to stay in the bach before buying came about after an “aha” moment for Wall while on a fishing trip with a mate.
“I was saying to my mate that it’s sort of weird that the biggest decision you ever make – buying a house – you take after maybe two hours tops in the place,” Wall said.
“We’ve sold $20 million places where people have spent one hour looking at it. Why is that? It doesn’t make sense.”
He said that while buying a house in town is a pretty known quantity for city folk, experiencing a bach is a completely different head space – so needs different exposure.
“It’s house-buying for key forever memories for the family, it takes a bit more processing,” Wall said.
The bach opens directly onto the beach from a gate in the front lawn. Photo / Supplied
“If you’ve never spent a night on Palm Beach, you may never know how special it is,” he said, adding that, beyond winery day trips, many buyers were still new to the island so may not be familiar with particular beaches or neighbourhoods.
The five-bedroom house had a CV of $9.3m, but had been expected to fetch over $10m. The original owners had bought the property in 1997 for $800,000, records show, before building the house in 2000.
It joins a handful of $10m-plus sales on the island including a Hamptons-inspired cliff-top property on Ocean View Road, Oneroa, that went for $10.25m last November and another property which is yet to settle.
The island’s top price this summer is for a five-hectare estate on the southern end of the island, a seven-bedroom home on Orapiu Road, Omaru Bay, with its own helipad, that went for $17.5m in December.
A nearby house at 41A Palm Road, Palm Beach, is for sale by negotiation. Photo / Supplied
Wall said that high-end beach properties typically sell either that day or take several months for buyers to line up their purchase.
“These are people who have not necessarily been hunting, so when they see a place it does take a month or two to get their ducks in a row. They’re not actually looking, but when they see their dream house come up, they make it happen – maybe they need to downsize from the city or move from another part of the island.”
He said that high-end property seems unaffected by the current market conditions.
The Walls are marketing two other homes on Waiheke Island – a smartly renovated three-bedroom home one house back from the beach at 41A Palm Road, Palm Beach, and a luxury mansion right on the beach at 159 The Strand, Onetangi.
A designer house on 159 The Strand is expected to break Waiheke Island beachfront records when it sells. Photo / Supplied
The 566sqm cross-lease home on Palm Beach has a CV of $4.3m and, records show, last changed hands nearly 11 years ago for $1.85m.
Graham Wall modestly bills the three-bedroom 252sqm house on the beach at Onetangi as the ‘best bach on earth’, pointing out that houses of this quality easily sell for more than their CV. The property, which last sold just over nine years ago for $3.5m, has a 2021 CV of $7.3m, but has since been extensively renovated.
Ollie Wall told OneRoof that the property has had huge interest, with serious enquiries coming from London-based Kiwis, as well as Singaporeans and Australians.
“It’s such an interesting property in an amazing spot, so lots of people want to take a look. I think we’ve had more overseas interest than we’ve had for any other property.”
- Click here to see more houses for sale on Waiheke Island
