- A Canterbury couple paid nearly $7 million for a Japanese-style home designed by O'Neil + Shirley Architecture.
- The property, less than a year old, attracted multiple bidders at auction, selling for $6.9 million.
- Harcourts agent Alison Aitken said the home appealed to downsizers seeking luxury without the stress of building.
A Canterbury couple paid nearly $7 million for a standout Christchurch home that took two-and-a-half years to build.
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They decided to buy the finished product rather than take on the cost, risk and stress of a major construction project themselves.
For their money, they got a Japanese-style four-bedroom luxury pad designed by O'Neil + Shirley Architecture and spatial design guru Davinia Sutton.
It was also near-new; the vendors had only lived in the house for less than a year before deciding to sell.
O'Neil + Shirley Architecture and interior designer Davinia Sutton were involved in the high-quality design. Photo / Supplied
The vendors had only lived at the property for less than a year before deciding to sell. Photo / Supplied
The couple found themselves competing against two other bidders at Thursday's auction at Harcourts Grenadier. The bidding opened at $5m, and jumped in $100,000 increments before pausing for negotiations at $6.6m.
The house on Holmwood Road, in Merivale, then came back to the floor with a new bid of $6.9m - $2.67m above the RV - and was promptly announced as on the market and sold.
Harcourts agent Alison Aitken told OneRoof that the property had attracted plenty of attention because it was relatively unusual to find a high-calibre home that was less than a year old.
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The couple had tasked O'Neil + Shirley Architecture and Sutton with the job of creating their dream retirement home in 2023, but their plans changed and selling it seemed the best option.
“They certainly didn’t build it as a spec home; they built it for themselves. But things change, and they’ve got different ideas of what they want to do now.”
Aitken said her clients had built it as a downsizing property, and that’s exactly the main buyer type it had attracted.
“It was probably more set towards that market of downsizers that don’t want to downsize their land and everything else. We had a lot of families through it, but it was probably more suitable for my sort of age group.”
The buyers were from the wider Canterbury area and had been planning to build their own retirement property when they stumbled across the Holmwood Road home, which is close to Hagley Park.
“I think the people who look at this think, 'Why would I go through the building pain when I can buy something?'” Aitken said.
“These people who ended up buying clearly loved it and everything my owners had done.”
Earlier this year, Aitken sold Cantilever House on Glandovey Road, in Merivale, for $8.34m. The impressive home is the most expensive property to sell so far this year in Christchurch and also holds the city’s auction record.
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