- A rare Mt Maunganui waterfront site is under contract but not yet sold.
- The property, with a combined RV of over $20m, received multiple tenders.
- Vendor Linda Beazley highlighted its history and potential for luxury development or generational asset.
A rare waterfront site in Mt Maunganui, which once hosted Miss New Zealand contestants in the 1960s, has gone under contract but has not yet sold.
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The listing for 65, 67 and 69 Oceanbeach Road remains live in the meantime.
Bayleys listing agent Peter Clark said a conditional tender had been accepted by the vendor.
“For the property to sell, any conditions in the accepted tender need to be satisfied before the property is sold.”
He said multiple tenders had been received for the substantial property, which has a combined RV of more than $20 million, but details around the tender, or tenderer, remained confidential.
65, 67 and 69 Oceanbeach Road covers 4866sqm of land and have a combined RV of over $20m. Photo / Supplied
One of Linda Beazley’s prized photos from the 1960s shows the spot in its heyday. Photo / Supplied
While Clarke could not comment further about the property, OneRoof understands that in such situations where a property is under contract, the listing remains live in case deals collapse.
An agent unconnected to the deal told OneRoof that in many cases, a backup offer could still be made, with potential buyers waiting out the conditional period. At that stage, the offer would either fail because conditions were not met, or conditions were met and the offer would proceed to an unconditional sale.
Vendor Linda Beazley told OneRoof late last year that the house was the work of her pioneering builder dad, Barry Beazley, and that the property was the largest block of absolute beachfront ever offered on the coastal stretch.
She said the property offered “multiple possibilities. It could once again be a grand private estate with gardens, pool and an architectural statement residence. It could become a boutique luxury development centred around resort-style amenities, or it could be held as a rare generational asset, one of the last and largest of its kind in New Zealand.”
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She also recalled some of the property’s glamorous history. When she was eight, the house hosted the Miss New Zealand contest, and provided a photo of the competitors dangling their legs in the pool while being serenaded by celebrated New Zealand guitarist Peter Posa, best known for his instrumental hit The White Rabbit.
She also provided a picture of her glamorous mum Doreen, now in her 90s, reclining by the same pool wearing a splendid beehive hairdo.
“Mum had done some modelling and was delighted to be asked to host a Miss NZ contest,” Linda said in October.
It was a nice day, and Linda remembered thinking how odd it was that none of the contestants went for a swim: “Of course they didn’t, because of the beehives.”
Her father had bought the land in the 1950s for 10,000 pounds before New Zealand had even adopted decimal currency.
The three properties sit on one of the country’s most expensive beach strips. Photo / Supplied
The main house as it stands now. Photo / Supplied
Barry was a pioneer of New Zealand’s building industry and went on to establish Beazley Homes (the jingle went Easily a Beazley Home), which he later sold to Fletcher Building.
By the late 1960s, he was shipping his solid-rimu transportable homes nationwide, Linda said.
“Back in the day, he was New Zealand’s biggest home builder, and he was erecting 300 houses a year and popping them off around the country, and the house that’s on the property is the first Beazley home.”
Her mother helped with the interior design of the simple, three-bedroom, one-bathroom homes known for their hip roofs, homes that Linda says came to define the Kiwi dream of being affordable, enduring and practical.
“At the time, they were low-cost, affordable housing for people post-war, but they’ve got a little bit of an iconic status now. If someone says it’s a Beazley home, it’s always got a rimu floor.”
Her mother turned the surrounding dunes at Mt Maunganui into a lush, exotic garden that became a landmark in its own right – and it was Doreen who added what Linda told OneRoof was one of the Bay of Plenty’s first resort-style pools.
The “vast” kidney-shaped pool was 5m deep with a diving board, slide and a natural hot spring-fed spa. “The house and pool featured in magazines across New Zealand, even playing host to the Miss New Zealand contest.”
In 1973, when Beazley Homes was sold, the family moved to the Gold Coast, but the Mount remained their retreat, though their home was sold – almost – once before.
A developer bought the property but went broke, and the block reverted to her parents, but not before the developer cut down a lot of the big trees and the pool was lost, Linda said.
The decision to sell up was a hard one, Linda told OneRoof last year. “It is really sad. I would love to be able to just hold on to it, but it’s got to a point where it needs some tender loving care – it needs someone to take it to the next level.
“We’ve held on for a long time with nothing in mind except we couldn’t bear to let it go.”
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