- Craigmore House, a historic six-bedroom mansion in Herne Bay, is back on the market.
- The property, on a 2100sqm section, is zoned for suburban development and priced at $7.95 million.
- Agents highlight its potential for modernisation or redevelopment into apartments or townhouses.
A historic mansion in Auckland’s exclusive Herne Bay is back on the market for the third time in four years.
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The six-bedroom mansion at 60 Argyle Street sits on a 2100sqm section zoned for development and could be bowled and replaced with townhouses.
When it first hit the market in 2021, Craigmore House had price expectations of over $10 million. However, it was pulled from sale after just three months as Auckland laboured through its last, lengthy, Covid lockdown.
It was relisted again in 2023 with an asking price of $7.95m, with the listing agents declaring in their marketing: “Let's Get Down to Business - $3.25m under CV.”
The historic house sits on over 2100sqm of land zoned for suburban development. Photo / Supplied
The house has many of its original features intact, despite being carved into two flats in the 1980s. Photo / Supplied
According to OneRoof records, the property was noted as sold a year ago, but it is not clear if the sale ever settled.
It is now listed for sale with Colliers agents Adam White and Ned Gow, with inspections by appointment only. The new CV is $9.75m, $7.55m of which is for the land.
When OneRoof reported on the property in 2021, the then listing agents said it had been tenanted but that the overseas vendor now wanted it sold.
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Despite the house’s history and remarkably intact period features, it could be demolished as the land is zoned for suburban development.
White and Gow in their listing on OneRoof said the property was surplus to the vendor's requirement but offered multiple options, including modernising the grand family home or exploring the potential of the Residential Mixed Suburban zoning”.
They note the panoramic views from the top floor, and say the site is one of the larger landholdings in Herne Bay.
Another mansion on Shelly Beach Road, on the edge of Saint Marys Bay and Herne Bay, sold for $7.9m and is also zoned for development. Photo / Supplied
A grand villa on Hamilton Road, Herne Bay, had luckier fate. After a series of luxury renovations it sold last year for $11.5m. Photo / Supplied
Earlier agents had told OneRoof that the upper floor, with five bedrooms and a sun-porch, had a 1980s kitchen and bathroom dating from when it was converted into a flat. Photos show peeling ceiling and aluminium sliding doors, but also arched leadlight windows, ceiling rose and chandelier and original windows on the huge porch.
At the time, the agents also said the ground floor kitchen, bathrooms, pantry and laundry, which were not shown in the listing photos, were still in fairly original condition. The grand entry, living and dining rooms have ornate carved timber fireplaces, leadlight doors and architraves.
The most recent listing photos show a tidily painted house with a modern detached garage and a secondary annex with a bathroom and laundry.
The house is the second grand villa with development potential that White and Gow have brought to market in the area. Earlier this year, the pair sold an eight-bedroom Victorian mansion on Shelly Beach Road, on the boundary of Herne Bay and St Marys Bay, for $7.9m.
The property was also zoned for development. The agents declined to reveal the identity of the buyer or their plans, but the sale price was nearly $2m above CV and reflected the 1700sqm section’s favourable development potential.
Some of the neighbourhood's grand villas have been luckier. A renovated two-storey villa on Hamilton Road resold at the end of 2024 for $11.5m. That was just short of the $12m the owners had paid for it as the market peaked in October 2021, only four months after it had changed hands for $11m.
That house sat on a section that was zoned only for single houses and had an enviable provenance of rich-listers, including 42 Below founders Geoff Ross and Justine Troy, and rich-lister Diane Foreman, who made a series of luxury upgrades to the property.
OneRoof approached White for comment on the Argyle Street property but had yet to hear at the time of publication.
- 60 Argyle Street, Herne Bay, Auckland, is for sale, deadline closing August 6
