Remuera’s top streets have relatively slim pickings on the market at the moment and there’s a slight (very slight) difference of opinion among agents as to which is ‘the’ best street in the blue-chip Auckland suburb.
Some pick Victoria Avenue while others say Arney Road has the edge.
Both feature prominently in the list of the suburb’s biggest sales, although neighbouring streets, including Burwood Crescent, Remuera Road and Lucerne Road, are also prized by buyers with $10 million or more to spend.
Wayne Shum, senior research analyst at OneRoof’s data partner Valocity, said people looking for a palatial estate tend to focus on these streets, whereas those looking for a townhouse or an apartment probably look elsewhere.
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Top sales price for the suburb is a mansion on Remuera Road, which sold in 2021 for $29m in an off-market deal brokered by Graham and Ollie Wall of Wall Real Estate.
Other than a modern waterfront mansion on Burwood Crescent, which sold last year for $20.6m, and a large apartment on Orakei Road which sold for $16m, most of the big sales are on Victoria Avenue or Arney Road.
One of 2022’s biggest sales was on Victoria Avenue: a mansion sold by rich-lister financier Martyn Reesby for $23.8m, in a deal brokered by Bayleys’ Gary Wallace. And in 2021 a mansion on Arney Road fetched $22m.
Ray White Epsom agent Richard Thode, who sells at the top end of the market in Remuera, thinks Victoria Avenue is very much the street people want to break into, saying there are big beautiful homes there, most of which cannot be seen from the road.
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“There are some iconic homes that can be seen from the road, in particular the old Grant Dalton home, which is back on the market for sale. But there are also some amazing homesteads that are hidden down driveways.
“I think that’s the part that a lot of people don’t understand because they don’t get to see them until they are on the market.”
Thode thinks there is something about the name of the street that people who want to live there love: “It sort of resonates with Queen Victoria doesn’t it?”
The location is another pull, with the shops and restaurants a short walk away and all the good schools nearby.
People buying there are smart enough to know that if they buy on prestigious streets like Victoria Avenue, they won’t have any trouble with resale.
“I think there is some prestige that goes with that street address for sure,” Thode said.
Financier Martyn Reesby's home on Victoria Avenue sold for $23.8m in 2022. Photo / Supplied
Barfoot & Thompson agent Leila MacDonald, who has brokered numerous big deals in the suburb, said most buyers want something on the northern slopes in the grammar zone with indoor and outdoor living.
She said Victoria Avenue, Arney Road, Arney Crescent and Seaview Road were all sought-after, noting that people often buy on a different street in Remuera with a view to working their way to one of those three.
“It’s like buying a piece of antique furniture. You are buying what you can afford and when you can afford more you sell it and buy something much more expensive. It’s just the same thing really. You start with what you can afford and then you go up.”
She sold a big character Art Nouveau home in Victoria Avenue from the 1930s late last year, which had been held by the same family for 40 years, for $7.08m. That was more than $1m above the CV, although MacDonald said she told buyers to forget the CV because it was far too low.
Steve Koerber puts Victoria Avenue in the top four streets. He has an apartment for sale for just under $2m, and he has a two-bedroom “funky unit” on Seaview Road he puts in the high $1m.
The mansion formerly owned by Kiwi music agent Harry M Miller sold for $7m last year. Photo / Supplied
He thinks Arney Road is “the” street in Remuera and said it comes down to the road’s manicured grass berms (Victoria Avenue by contrast is all concrete footpaths).
“The owner of homes on Arney Road, you can just tell they care for their environment and the properties.”
He is not saying Victoria Avenue owners don’t care about their homes and environments, it’s just they don’t have the immaculate grass berms.
Koerber said his current listings were great opportunities for people to break into the streets, or downsize into.
Some agents prefer Arney Road over Victoria Avenue. Both streets are home to some very expensive homes. Photo / Chris Tarpey
He had big sales under the auction hammer last year in the streets, saying the sale of a Seaview Road house for $7.7m, was last year’s auction record for the suburb.
Another big sale, of a music legend’s former home on Victoria Avenue for $7m, was Remuera’s third highest auction sale.
The mansion had been owned by New Zealand music agent Harry M Miller, who managed the Morrison Quartet, and went on to bring some big name acts to New Zealand. Apparently Roy Orbison once played his guitar in the driveway for the neighbours.
Koerber thinks a lot of people in the coveted Remuera streets have been holding off listing as they are wary of the market and are waiting for more confidence to return, but he also said that once in people tended to stay. “I think it’s the neighbours, the quietness of them, just the quality of the neighbourhood I think it’s really important to people.”
Paul Sissons, from New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty, said both Victoria Avenue and Arney Road were pretty special but he too thinks Arney Road has the edge.
“You go down Arney Road and they’re all lovely without exception. There’s a mixture of traditional and there’s some modern ones down there.”
Grant Dalton's former home, at 95 Victoria Avenue, is up for grabs. Photo / Supplied
The streets are very sought after but not necessarily the most expensive, although there are certainly pricey homes, he said. But there are also some beautiful big properties on the northern ridge along Remuera Road.
People look for quality and Sissons thinks owners probably stay a bit longer these days because the children tend to stay at home longer, or return home after university.
“Traditionally, if you go back 40 years ago, kids couldn’t wait to get out of home to go flatting or whatever. Now with the cost of university and things like that and student loans and stuff, I think they tend to stay around the nest a bit more.”
Eventually, owners downsize to an apartment or a retirement village. Sissons said big homes were selling but they often sold quietly off-market.
Sisson’s colleague Karen Moore is selling the former Grant Dalton mansion in Victoria Avenue, and Sissons said Sotheby’s also sold architect Noel Lane’s Arts and Crafts family home on the street in 2022 for $10.25m.
“There are some big ones down there. If you look at Vicky Ave and what’s sold, you’d probably find there’s been a dozen big houses sell down there in the last two years, and the same with Arney.”
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