New Zealand television supremo Dame Julie Christie has put her luxury Auckland penthouse on the market for sale.
Agents for the producer told OneRoof they were looking for $7.5 million-plus for the three-bedroom apartment at 2/17 Laurie Avenue, in Parnell.
Dame Julie, who brought the home renovation show The Block NZ to New Zealand audiences in 2012, bought the site in 2015 and split it into luxury flats.
The project, which was overseen by leading Kiwi architects Christian Anderson, took five years to complete – longer than the 13 weeks’ of competitive building seen on The Block NZ – and features interiors by lauded designer Camilla Temple.
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“I had an apartment down the Viaduct and I was interested in building something myself,” Dame Julie told OneRoof.
“I wanted to live upstairs, without living in an apartment. The house would have been way too big for me as one house, so we made it a house with a guest apartment.”
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Dame Julie said she was heavily involved in the design process, keeping Pinterest boards of inspiring photos and revealed that the spa pool, tucked in a natural bush garden, was modelled off a picture of one of her favourite gardens.
Dame Julie said she got loft-like high ceilings she craved, and a mezzanine floor for her office.
The keen cook also ensured she had an entertainers’ kitchen – the Wolf fridge freezer and wine fridge take up a good part of one wall and “there are dishwashers everywhere”, she laughed.
Outdoors is her favourite touch: a teppanyaki grill, along with a pizza oven, drinks fridge and fireplace. Surprising for the inner city, the home gets a natural bush outlook.
Dame Julie Christie launched The Block NZ in New Zealand in 2012 and now owns global production company NHNZ which produced Poi Stories for New Zealand Rugby. Photo / Michael Craig
The three-level building looks like a house from the street, but includes a ground level and an upper-floor apartment, with outdoor living on the lower ground floor. Photo / Supplied
“It’s a very calming house,” Dame Julie said, highlighting the wood floors and bush-like gardens built with tons of rocks around the existing creek.
The home is an antidote to the stresses of her global television company, NHNZ, which co-produces natural history shows for broadcasters such as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and National Geographic in 180 countries.
Her latest project is a little closer to home: the Poi Stories series for New Zealand Rugby’s channel NZR+ that follows seven elite Black Ferns stars on their journey through the traditional Māori art of Poi.
Dame Julie said she and her partner Simon were downsizing to start another building project, although she’s not sure yet whether it will be a new build or a renovation.
“I don’t get attached to houses, as all the things I truly love, the floors, the ceilings, I can do again. You learn so much when you’re doing buildings so I’ll be even better the next time.”
The two outdoor areas feature a teppanyaki grill, pizza oven and fireplaces. The lower ground floor one opens off the media room to the pool. Photo / Supplied
The pool area off the lower ground floor. The apartment is on the top floor, the second apartment visible here on the middle floor. Photo / Supplied
The luxurious master suite. Photo / Supplied
Bayleys agent Gary Wallace, who has the listing with wife Vicki, said that the 298sqm apartment was of “incomparable quality, plus extensive outdoor living”.
“This home needs to be seen to be believed,” the Wallaces’ advertising said.
While he did not want to specify the price, Wallace said that based on a recent valuation the agents were expecting buyers “seeing value above $7.5m”.
But Dame Julie is no stranger to real estate in the real world. She told OneRoof she has built three other new houses, including one on a section next to the four relocated houses in Belmont on Auckland’s North Shore that featured in season two of the show, as well as plenty of renovations.
She’s not the only dame with an apartment for sale either. Dame Trelise Cooper put her new apartment on Devore Street, in Auckland’s St Heliers on the market earlier this year, telling OneRoof she planned to spend more time travelling and at her place in France.
The three-bedroom house in the Sonata building, listed by Barfoot & Thompson agent Aaron Foss is for sale by negotiation.
- 2/17 Laurie Avenue, in Parnell, Auckland has a set sale date of November 27
