- A Palm Springs-style Remuera home is for sale as its owner relocates to Bali.
- The home featured in The Bachelor New Zealand’s first season and the Greens’ romance.
- Its $5.95m RV and luxury refurbishment are attracting buyers, but the asking price remains undisclosed.
It’s the resort-like home that brought Art and Matilda Green together, and it’s up for grabs.
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The four-bedroom Palm Springs-style house at 52 Benson Road, in Auckland’s Remuera, has hit the market as owner Ina Bajaj relocates to Bali.
Bajaj is the founder of one of Auckland’s first luxury day spas, and her luxuriously renovated house is one of the most striking in the suburb.
It also has celebrity cred. Fans of The Bachelor New Zealand may recognise it from the reality TV show’s first season in 2015 and the famous pool party that set the scene for Art and Matilda’s romance.
Bajaj told OneRoof that she and her late husband, Geoff Conway, were in Bali during the shoot, so she was unable spill the tea on the blossoming celebrity romance.
Art and Matilda Green’s romance blossomed at the Benson Road home, which was a filming location for The Bachelor NZ. Photo / Supplied
The house’s Palm Springs vibe was created by interior designer Hannah Warren, who also worked on Bajaj’s spas in Auckland and Bali. Photo / Supplied
The luxury kitchen was popular with Bajaj’s late husband, Geoff Conway. Photo / Supplied
She and Conway bought the house at a mortgagee sale in 2011 for just over $2 million after falling in love with the sprawling tropical garden that dominated the 1500sqm section.
The “very 1990s” black-and-white decor wasn’t to their taste, but Bajaj’s experience opening luxury spas, most famously Auckland’s East Day Spa at Sky City Grand Hotel, left her in no doubt that the house could be sorted.
The couple initially did a small renovation with interior designer Stewart Harris, before carrying out a full makeover in 2020 with designer Hannah Warren, who worked on Bajaj’s Spring Spas in Bali and Ponsonby.
“New floors, new kitchen, new bathroom. We took out the separate dining room, made it open, and a lot more contemporary,” Bajaj said.
“We had the pool and garden area re-tiled, but the garden we haven’t actually changed. It is very low maintenance, user-friendly and incredibly private. No one can see you.”
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Bajaj’s relationship with Bali has inspired her life and business. She and Geoff built a beautiful house there in Canggu in 2008 and began spending more time there after Geoff became unwell in 2014.
“Geoff passed away two years ago, so that is one of the reasons I’m motivated to sell,” Bajaj said.
She added: “I came to Bali and just fell in love with the island. It was so beautiful.”
Bajaj’s passion now is her Bali business, which has grown to six spas and 500 staff, plus a training school. “Initially it was a lifestyle choice, but then I really am a workaholic. I made it work, and we really enjoyed living here,” she said, noting that her hometown of Canggu has grown from surfers and cows to one of the busiest parts of Bali.
“We had a foot in both countries, and I still do. It is just that now that I’m on my own, it is easier for me to live in a smaller house, rather than the upkeep of pools and things like that.”
Ina Bajaj founded her New Zealand spas before branching into Bali, where she now has Spring Spas in six locations. Photo / Supplied
The house features a wood-panelled media room for winter evenings. Photo / Supplied
A bathroom opens to its own courtyard. Photo / Supplied
Life in the Remuera house is centred around the pool in the daytime, and the media room with fire in the evenings. The bedrooms are in two wings, opening to private patios (one had been Bajaj’s massage room). One bath opens to a private courtyard, and there is Bajaj’s favourite, an infrared sauna.
Luxury hotel style continues with a lobby for the grand piano, the timber floors, line curtains and lavish stone finishes.
Bajaj admits the kitchen was Geoff’s domain. “I can’t even boil an egg to be honest. So you know, it was his preferred space because it’s a very social kitchen,” she said.
Her love was her morning ritual of a swim and breakfast by the pool, a quiet space yet only minutes from busy Remuera. “Just being quiet in nature is actually as good for the soul as anything. Both my homes, Bali and in Benson Road, are just surrounded by nature and birds. It’s like a rainforest.”
Barfoot & Thompson listing agent James Doole said the striking design and complete privacy the house offered were drawing buyers. He could not comment on the price, but felt that the quality of the refurbishment would push it over the RV of $5.95m.
- 52 Benson Road, Remuera, Auckland, is for sale by negotiation
