- Brendon and Leonie Hamill are selling their renovated 110-year-old villa in Manukau Heads.
- The villa was moved 95km with Clarke Gayford’s help on the show Moving Houses New Zealand.
- The couple transformed it into a modern retreat, winning awards for the kitchen renovation.
It’s the Remuera villa Clarke Gayford nearly dropped onto a car, and now it’s on the market for sale.
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Brendon and Leonie Hamill are selling their beloved home at 20 Andrew Pye Road, in Auckland’s Manukau Heads, four years after they appeared on Kiwi screens with Jacinda Ardern’s other half in the inaugural episode of Moving Houses New Zealand.
The couple had bought a 110-year-old villa at an online auction for $87,000 and called on the services of Gayford and his moving crew to shift it to their lifestyle plot 95km away on the Awhitu peninsula.
Clarke Gayford with Brendon and Leonie Hamill in the very first episode of Moving Houses New Zealand. Photo / TVNZ
The luxury kitchen, which the owners reckon would cost $150,000 to put in today, won several awards. Photo / Supplied
The $100,000 journey through Auckland with Gayford and Andrews Housemovers was a nail-biter. The villa was cut in half and loaded onto two trucks.
Gayford rode shotgun as the trucks inched along a tight Remuera road, missing a parked car by millimetres. “While the neighbours sleep, we are doing our best not to drop a house on top of someone’s expensive European car,” he said to the camera.
The trucks eventually got the two halves of the villa to the Hamills, and they set about restoring it to its former glory.
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The couple, newlyweds when the show was filmed (“we still are,” Brendon joked with OneRoof) had planned to turn the property into a wedding venue in partnership with a wedding planner before Covid intervened. Instead, the villa has been their weekend escape from Pukekohe for the last four years.
Now the couple are selling up, so they can start another property adventure. “We can’t spend enough time there, and we’ve got other desires to be in the design world, maybe Queenstown or Wanaka,” Leonie said of their new plans.
The couple told OneRoof that filming Moving Houses was “thoroughly enjoyable”.
The master bedroom and bathroom were reoriented to take in the spectacular water and farm views. The pressed tin ceilings are original. Photo / Supplied
The couple spent weekends on the property, finishing the gardens and entertaining friends on the deck. Photo / Supplied
“Clarke is very good at his job. He was a nice bloke, and he knows the right questions to ask,” Brendon said.
“The only problem was repeating conversations when the cameras were rolling. The filming tries to create drama, but our days are all about resolving problems.”
“We’d do it again,” added Leonie.
It helped that the couple are professionals: Brendon owns the Pukekohe David Reid homes franchise while Leonie runs an award-winning interior and kitchen design company, Cube Dentro.
Despite falling in love with the original features of the villa, particularly the pressed tin ceilings, Leonie took the renovation in a modern direction.
“It’ll be around for another 100 years, so I wanted to bring it into contemporary style and keep the beautiful elements.”
Top of the list was a complete remodel of the kitchen, which won Leonie a slew of gongs, including supreme runner-up in the National Kitchen and Bathroom awards in 2022.
“They are high levels of finishes, it’s what the villa deserved,” she said.
“I would say it would cost $150,000 for someone to do that kitchen today. It is hard to say what it all cost because we did so much ourselves. It was mind-boggling.”
The house also got new piles, insulation, wiring, plumbing, and roofing, and over the years the couple have added landscaping, with room for outdoor dining for 35, and fencing.
The bathrooms are equally luxe. The bedrooms and living are oriented to the view, which Brendon said sweeps 270 degrees from the Manukau Harbour around to the Hunua Ranges.
“We just love the villa; it is so calming to be here with friends. We are only the fourth owners of the house. It has always had longevity in people’s lives,” Leonie said.
Bayleys listing agent Michele Mathieson, who is selling the home with colleague Sonya Bloomfield, said: “The renovation on this home is next level. It’s a masterclass in blending ultra-modern elegance with the soul and charm of a bygone era.”
- 20 Andrew Pye Road, in Awhitu, Auckland, is for sale
