- A Wellington buyer purchased a renovated Grey Lynn villa for $4.4m at auction.
- The villa, transformed by builder Andrew McDade, was originally bought for over $2m last year.
- The house, with historical ties to Auckland’s early Chinese community, attracted significant interest.
A buyer from Wellington snapped up a renovated Grey Lynn villa that has ties to Auckland’s early Chinese community.
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The house on Crummer Road had seen better days, but had been bought last year by a builder who paid over $2m and transformed the do-up into a high-end home.
At auction last week, the renovated house sold for more than double last year’s sale price, finishing at $4.4 million as three bidders competed to own the four-bedroom, two-bathroom stunner.
The builder, Andrew McDade, told OneRoof ahead of the auction that the house had required “quite a bit of surgery”.
It had been home to a single Chinese family, the Gins, for 70 years and needed to be pushed into the 21st Century.
“Every single aspect of what you see today is either brand new or has been lovingly restored to as-new condition.”
Builder Andrew McDade did a top-to-bottom renovation of the villa, bringing a modern look and layout to the home. Photo / Supplied
McDade told OneRoof earlier this month: “Every single aspect of what you see today is either brand new or has been lovingly restored to as-new condition.” Photo / Supplied
The house now featured open-plan living, including a concealed scullery, and extensive decking.
McDade also created a garage, suspending the house on steel beams during excavations. He said members of the Gin family had come for a look at the end result and were amazed and shed tears.
Agent Robyn Ellson, from Ray White Mt Eden, said at auction bids opened high at $3.5m, describing that as “wow,” and then shot up in $100,000 and $50,000 increments before the hammer came down.
Ellson said the renovations meant the property fitted into a demand for fully finished family homes.
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Around 170 groups came through, “and I mean groups, so it wasn’t just one person coming through. Like, it felt energetic, positive. Everyone was so complimentary about the renovation. It was a lovely campaign. The numbers coming through felt like 2021.”
People looking had mainly come from nearby areas, such as Ponsonby and Grey Lynn, and there had been “quite a few” Herne Bay downsizers.
“So you’ve got your Herne Bay downsizers, and then you’ve got your young family stepping up, most of them actually coming from Grey Lynn already, or Kingsland, so the natural sort of step up that they’re looking to do.”
In the end, however, the buyer was someone moving to Auckland from Wellington, she said.
The Crummer Road villa was snapped up within 10 days of hitting the market last year. Photo / Supplied
The original owners bought the house for £3000. Photo / Supplied
The villa still had the original washhouse, with outside toilet, and garage when it was sold last year. Photo / Supplied
There was a gap in the market in the high-$3m to mid-$4m price range: “We actually need more renovated family homes.”
One of the problems was that a lot of people would not sell their house before finding what they wanted to replace it with, and Ellson said some of those who were interested had been looking for three years.
“It is slim pickings in this point of the market. And people want to be there. It seems to me that we’ve had a little cluster, tiny cluster of these developers buying the absolute dogs and turning them around, but they’re the only ones.”
These were the homes people wanted, she said: “This should really be the focus on restoring our beautiful character homes, making them proper family homes that are so unique to New Zealand as well. I think we’ve got the most incredible housing stock that is there to be regenerated, and the demand is there.”
This week, Cotality’s chief economist Kelvin Davidson wrote in his OneRoof column that now was a good time to trade up.
Data showed it cost at least $100,000 in most parts of the country to step up from a three-bedroom to a four-bedroom house, while in Auckland City, Manukau, North Shore and Queenstown the cost was over $400,000.
“Even so, some key markets, including parts of Auckland and Wellington, have recently seen the trade-up premium get smaller, perhaps as four-bedroom property values have dropped more than three-bedroom property values (although in other areas the trade-up premium has shrunk because three bedrooms have risen more than four, which is a less favourable set of shifts for buyers).
Cotality chief economist Kelvin Davidson: "It’s probably a pretty good time to be considering a move up the ladder.” Photo / Peter Meecham
“Long story short, although relocating owner-occupiers are generally pretty cautious at the moment, it’s probably a pretty good time to be considering a move up the ladder,” Davidson wrote.
“Listings are abundant, and although that might subdue your own selling price, the closing trade-up gaps on our data show that you may also get an even better deal on the property you buy.”
McDade, who renovated the Crummer Road property, had seen the potential and bought it within 10 days of it hitting to market.
Then agent Richard Thode, also from Ray White, told OneRoof last February the price paid was strong for a “raw” villa that would need a fair amount of financial input to restore and modernise.
The Gins had bought the home in 1955 for 3000 pounds, with an earlier OneRoof report detailing how Ming Wood and Yong See Gin had outgrown a two-bedroom flat above their laundry business on Pitt Street.
The story said back in the 1950s, the blocks around Pitt Street, Greys Avenue and Hobson Street were Auckland’s unofficial Chinatown.
The couple’s children, Connie Gin, 82, and Ronnie, 78, explained how their father had gone back to China in 1929 for an arranged marriage to Yong See, but then did not see her again for 11 years.
Ellson is also selling a modern home at 48A Sunny Brae Crescent, in neighbouring Westmere, for just under $3.5m. Photo / Supplied
“Mum was pregnant, and had been left at home because at that time [Chinese] women could not come to New Zealand,” Connie told OneRoof.
The couple’s first son, Ray Ming, was born in China but did not meet his father until he was 10, and the couple went on to have five more children.
“They changed the policies in 1939 and 1940 after the Japanese invasion of China, so women and children could come out,” said Connie, who also said New Zealand was referred to as “the Gold Mountain”.
The Grey Lynn house became a stopping point for Chinese migrants coming to New Zealand, and in those days, there was a toilet on the outside porch, an outside laundry, high interior ceilings, and there is still an elegant return verandah and original gingerbread wood trims.
Ellson has another property on the market at 48A Sunny Brae Crescent, in neighbouring Westmere. The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home is priced in the mid-$3ms and has exceptional views, she said.
“It’s the contemporary lock-and-leave home. It is absolutely perfect for downsizers.”
Her listing said the Jones Architects-designed house was positioned on the water’s edge, enjoying a “mesmerising outlook across water, reef and open sky”.
The vendor was based overseas and would not be returning to New Zealand, meaning the property must be sold, said the listing.
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