- Anne Taylor’s 3.1ha Hobsonville lifestyle block, bought in 1966, is for sale, expected over $10m.
- The property, in the Future Urban Zone, is one of the last big development sites in the area.
- Taylor is selling to downsize, seeking a smaller rural property for herself and her cocker spaniels.
A West Auckland lifestyle block bought almost 60 years ago has hit the market for sale, with expectations it will fetch more than $10 million.
Start your property search
The owner of 7 Sinton Road, in Hobsonville, told OneRoof she snapped up the 3.1ha lifestyle block with her husband in 1966.
The young couple wanted their kids to grow up in the country and had to scrape all their pounds together to buy the section.
Anne Taylor, now in her 80s and a great-grandmother, said the mortgage was a struggle and she and her husband nearly walked away from the property after a year of ownership.
The section was bought almost 60 years ago by the vendor and her late husband for their growing family. Photo / Supplied
Decades on, she’s extremely grateful to the agent who convinced them to stay.
The property, which is in the Future Urban Zone, is one of the last big development sites left on Auckland’s western fringe.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Ben Macky said it was unusual to find one that had been owned by the same family for more than 50 years.
Discover more:
- Brad Pitt's West Auckland crib has finally sold - but who's the buyer?
- Wartime couple’s one and only home for sale after more than 70 years
- Clifftop mega-home hits the market - ‘this is $32m all day long’
“And it’s really rare to have a vendor who originally paid in pounds. There are not many of those left.”
Next door, a developer is pushing to turn at least five rural properties into a residential subdivision, and Macky expects the new owner of Sinton Road will do something similar.
“It’s in a really prime position: next to the motorway, next to Westgate, all the infrastructure,” he said.
Macky said feedback from buyers on price was north of the property’s $10m RV.
NZTA bought almost 1ha of land from the original section 20 years ago to build SH18 / Upper Harbour Motorway. Photo / Supplied
Taylor told OneRoof she was 22 when she and her husband bought the property. The couple and their young children had been living in Māngere and felt the country would be a better fit for their growing family.
“My hobby was showing dogs, and we lived in Mangere in the suburbs, and I wanted to have a litter to keep a puppy for myself for showing.”
They bought the section and a year later moved a small one-bedroom house on to the site. Her husband later extended it to fit the growing family of five. However, a year later, they were finding it hard to keep up with the mortgage , so she contacted the real estate agent about selling the property.
He talked her out of it. “He said, ‘I don’t want you to put the property on the market. You just have to keep going as you are, and soon you will be on top of it’.”
The Taylors nearly moved a second time. Twenty years ago, NZTA approached them about taking some of their land for the new SH18 / Upper Harbour Motorway. The couple looked around and couldn’t find anything they wanted, so they sold just under 1ha of land with their original house on it to the government agency.
They then imported a large caravan from the UK to live in while a newer four-bedroom home was built on the remainder of the site.
Taylor’s husband passed away two years ago, so she’s decided to sell and downsize to a smaller lifestyle area that still has enough room for her and her cocker spaniels. “I can’t be without my dogs, so I have to buy some rural land, but downsize and something I can manage myself,” she said.
“I don’t really feel like hopping on the Massey Ferguson [to mow the lawns].”
She said she would miss the property, telling OneRoof it had long been the meeting spot for the family at times of celebration. “We have all the family get-togethers here. We have Christmas and birthdays. We have great-grandchildren here, too,” she said.
“Christmas is just lovely with dogs running around freely on the land because it’s all fenced off.”
- 7 Sinton Road, Hobsonville, Auckland, is for sale, deadline closing December 17
