- A heritage property on Ridings Road sold for less than its $3 million asking price.
- The buyers plan a substantial extension, quadrupling the house size, with costs estimated at $2 million-plus.
- The property, dating back to the 19th century, includes plans for a four-level, six-bedroom home.
A heritage property on one of Auckland's wealthiest streets has sold to local buyers for less than its $3 million asking price.
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Barfoot & Thompson listing agent Sameer Rajan said the sale of the four-bedroom home on Ridings Road came with the vendor's plans for a multi-million-dollar Grand Designs-style makeover.
The buyers, he said, planned to complete the substantial extension, which would have quadrupled the size of the house.
Plans for the heritage house add 350sqm of living, plus a swimming pool, to the sloping backyard. Photo / Supplied
The plans were not everyone’s cup of tea, but because the resource consent had already been sorted, “we sold them a vision of what it’s going to look like, and that is why they bought the property.”
The vendors, Amin and Shirin Tharani, had shifted to Australia for work and decided to sell, despite investing a lot of time and money in the project.
They bought the house in December 2020 for $2.625m and commissioned Matter Architects to draw up plans for their dream home. They estimated building costs of between $1.5m and $2m and a work schedule of 14 to 16 months.
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Rajan, who had pitched the property to buyers with $3m-$3.5m to spend, told OneRoof this week that there had been a lot of interest in the property but that he had been careful to screen for qualified buyers.
“We had a few developers who wanted to subdivide, but I told them they needed to check. The beauty of Ridings Road is that it's in a single-house zone. That's the reason it's sought after.”
Another interested party had talked about bowling the house, but Rajan said the heritage status made that impossible. The new owners, however, were confident enough to take on the extension, he said.
“The location, the spot, you can't match that, but it's a challenging site. It's got a steep gradient downwards, but once the house is ready, it's going to be fantastic because there will be views from all levels."
The agent reckoned that the property is the best buy on the street. Photo / Supplied
He expected the extension would cost $2m-plus and estimated the finished property would be worth $6m to $7m.
Houses on Ridings Road typically sell for around $6m, but last year a five-bedroom trophy home with a pool, a gym, and a tennis court sold for $9.3m, nearly $1m above its RV.
Amin Tharani told OneRoof in May, when the property hit the market, that the family’s designs changed quite a bit to meet heritage regulations.
“We’ve invested $75,000 in architects, engineers, and we’d started on the building consent, but we pulled that halfway because of our move,” he said.
One of the owners told OneRoof the family’s initial designs had gone through more than one iteration with Auckland Council to meet the heritage regulations for the existing home.
“We’ve invested $75,000 in architects, engineers, and we’d started on the building consent, but we pulled that halfway because of our move.
“We didn’t go too far into building consent, because that means someone else could change the interiors, the proportions, and so on before they went for final building consent.”
The final approved consent was for a four-level, six-bedroom home, including the existing property. The upper floor extension had gabled roofs, and the two lower levels, connected by a lift, contained the master suite, a home theatre, and a self-contained apartment.
There was also provision for a swimming pool and double garaging. The planned exterior of weatherboard and white brick would match the heritage building.
The existing home dates back to the late 19th century and was known as the Buttery, as well as the Creamery, as it was linked to the original farm and nursery established in the 1860s.
“It’s difficult to leave because so much investment and research has gone into it,” Amin said.
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