- A neo-Georgian mansion in Mellons Bay sold for over $10m to a developer.
- The estate will be divided into 500sqm sections for up to 12 townhouses.
- The sale is the highest in the suburb in three years, says agent Kevin He.
A neo-Georgian mansion in East Auckland is set for demolition after being sold to a local developer for over $10 million.
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The trophy home, known as Fowey Lodge, sits on 1.1ha of prime waterfront land on Bleakhouse Road, in Mellons Bay.
The new owner plans to split the estate into 500sqm sections and build up to 12 townhouses on the site.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Kevin He told OneRoof the sale was the highest the suburb had seen in three years.
The property, which comprises several buildings, including the mansion, boasts 23 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and an RV of $13.75m. It first hit the market with another agency in 2023, with expectations it would fetch over $15m.
The 1930s mansion was owned by a GP, now retired, for 60 years. Photo / Supplied
The prime 1.13ha waterfront section is likely to be carved up into 11 or 12 smaller sites. Photo / Supplied
The vendor is a retired GP in his 90s who had lived in the home with his wife for 60 years. His son had told OneRoof that he had bought the estate for 35,000 pounds soon after emigrating to New Zealand.
He, who took on the listing last year, told OneRoof he was unable to disclose the exact sale price but confirmed it was north of $10m.
He said a developer had shown interest in the property at the end of last year and made an offer which the vendors accepted on Christmas Eve. The deal went unconditional last week.
He said a sale over $10m was a big deal for East Auckland, where the more expensive homes usually fetched between $2m and $3m. “It was a top price.”
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Only three other properties have broken the $10m mark in Mellons Bay: a 1422sqm waterfront estate on Seymour Road, which sold for $26.5m in 2022; a trophy home on Bleakhouse Road, which got $21.3m the year before; and a property on Marine Parade, which was snapped up for $14.5m the same year.
Bayleys agent Michael Chi, whose patch includes the East Auckland, said homes in the upper price bracket rarely hit the market. “There isn’t a lot in the Mellons Bay area for over $5m that’s on the market or about to hit the market.”
Some of the higher-end homes currently on the market in those beach suburbs include a five-bedroom house at 4 Glenoaks Rise, which is expected to sell for around $5m, and an older home on a 888sqm waterfront site at 55 The Parade, which has a price indication over $4m.
Chi said those that sold for over $10m were on big chunks of development land or were one-of-a-kind properties, pointing to the Seymour Road estate.
A Mellons Bay mansion, known as Greystone, was built in 2014 and sold for $26.5m in 2022. Photo / Supplied
A five-bedroom, four-bathroom home at 4 Glenoaks Rise, in Mellons Bay, is expected to sell for around $5m. Photo / Supplied
He pointed to the $26.5m sale of Seymour Road, which he and colleague Angela Rudling had brokered. The clifftop mansion was 1500sqm in size, boasted a library tower, Napoleonic-style dining room and a seven-car garage. And the 5000sqm section overlooking the Hauraki Gulf was in a gated community.
Chi said some of the suburb’s prestige house-buyers were relocating from other parts of the city either to be closer to family or to get more bang for their buck.
“Similar properties [in the central city] might have been double the price, so they sell up and buy an equally nice home here for half the money.”
Mellons Bay is close to the highly regarded Macleans College, but the school zone isn’t the biggest drawcard for the suburb’s multimillion-dollar buyers who often send their kids to private schools.
“Mostly it’s because the house itself is nice or they like the area.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Mellons Bay
