- Lynette Forday sold her Auckland home for $2.65m after listing it for $2.75m.
- Forday bought the sprawling Westmere property in 2012 for just over $1.2m.
- She plans to downsize now that her children are grown and has described the home as a “fairyland”.
Former Shortland Street star and Celebrity Treasure Island contestant Lynette Forday has sold her Auckland “mansion” for just over $2.6 million, OneRoof can reveal.
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Actor Forday, who made her name as the straight-talking Dr Grace Kwan in the long-running TVNZ soap, brought the sprawling six-bedroom property on West View Road, in the wealthy suburb of Westmere, to market in May last year.
She put a $2.75m price tag on the home after turning down an offer of $2.65m at auction. At the time, she told OneRoof that she was in no hurry to sell. “I wasn’t expecting it to sell at auction because the main interest is conditional,” she said in June last year.
Forday listed her six-bedroom home on West View Road, in Auckland’s Westmere, in May last year and found a buyer six months later. Photo / Supplied
“I’m in no rush, and the right person will come along, just like I did. When I bought it, I walked into the house and said, ‘Right, I’m buying it’ the very next day. It’s had really amazing feedback, so it’s just about people getting their ducks in a row. I’m relaxed about that.”
Five months later, Forday accepted $2.65m for the property, with the sale price now public.
Forday told OneRoof this week she was comfortable with the eventual sale price. “We went to auction, and I held back and said, 'no', and just played the game for a little bit, and then these people came back, and I realised this is the market," she said. "I got really lucky and sold for over the RV. I've moved into Grey Lynn. Now I've got a gorgeous, smaller house. It's wonderful."
She added: "Because I bought and sold in the same market, I was absolutely fine. I'm saying it for all the readers who are worried about selling in a bad market. This sounds so corny, but just trust that because you're buying at the same time. The market seems terrible, but it’s not. Move forward."
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Ray White listing agent Elaine Ferguson told OneRoof: “I met the buyers very early on in the piece. And they just needed the time to know it was the one for them. They've got lots of space for family, lots of bedrooms.”
Forday, who is perhaps best known to recent viewers for her star turn in Celebrity Treasure Island in 2022, told OneRoof last year that she was gearing up to film the second season of Queenstown crime drama A Remarkable Place to Die with Rebecca Gibney.
“I was just overwhelmed [getting] this role. It’s such a cool show, and it is so lovely to work with a good budget. They could have cast the stereotypical male - it’s a real breakthrough,” she said.
Forday bought the sprawling home overlooking Auckland Zoo and Western Springs Park’s Lake in 2012 for just over $1.2m. However, she told OneRoof in May last year that she no longer needed it now that her children were grown up.
The property started life as a 1920s workman’s cottage but slowly grew in size over the years. Photo / Supplied
The balcony offers views of the lake. Forday has enjoyed the chatter of the nearby zoo animals. Photo / Supplied
“My children have left home. I’m now a single, fabulous woman, and I no longer need this mansion,” she said. “It’s time to find a smaller cottage for myself.”
Forday compared the house to the Tardis: a tiny builder’s cottage at the front, but on the inside, it goes “on and on”. Adding to the magic was the wild garden at the back. “It’s basically a fairyland. I can’t see my neighbours. It’s all just forest,” she said.
“It was an amazing place for my children. We had amazing birthday parties in the forest and the studio. And then my daughter grew up, and there were teenage parties in the back – wild teenage parties, very wild.”
Forday told OneRoof that when she bought the property, she had just agreed to a return stint on Shortland Street. “Grace Kwan is iconic. She was the role that got a Chinese person on mainstream television – an Asian face on television. That was my first and most well-known role, and I still get called Grace by people. It’s a lovely compliment.”
Forday also opened up about her stint on Celebrity Treasure Island, where a feud between her and former Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy made headlines.
Forday told OneRoof that she was baffled as to why Dame Susan would dislike her so much. “Susan took a fabulous dislike to me. It was great TV. She just couldn’t stand me, and I was just totally baffled by the whole thing.
“I’m quite a girly girl. That was the issue. And she’s quite competitive. That’s why she’s a winner.”
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