- A four-bedroom Rawene home with waterviews is listed for $850,000 to $900,000.
- Agent Lara Robus highlights the challenge of selling due to the town's remote location.
- The property has attracted interest but an earlier offer fell through.
It's the sort of character home overlooking water that would sell for millions in Auckland. But the four-bedroom beauty for sale at 16 Parnell Street is in Rawene, in the Far North.
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Barfoot & Thompson listing agent Lara Robus told OneRoof that the town's remote location was a positive, but its distance from city life did make selling houses there challenging.
Having said that, she recently sold a home in nearby Kohukohu, a car ferry away, to a buyer from Whangarei.
The property sits on a 1355sqm section and is close to the shops and the water. Photo / Supplied
Her Parnell Street listing was a gem - “absolutely beautiful”, she said. It has attracted serious attention since hitting the market earlier this year, but an offer had fallen through a few weeks ago, and the property was now on the market with a price indication of $850,000 to $900,000.
One of the problems the agent was facing was that the RV of $610,000 did not reflect the property's true value. “It's having to explain to people that the RV doesn't reflect the water views, the condition of the home, and the size. Some people have CVs stuck in their head.”
The house had been well-loved and well-maintained, she said, and sits on a 1355sqm section overlooking the harbour and only a short walk to the shops, cafes, galleries, and car ferry.
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“It's stunning. It's just finding someone keen on Rawene.”
The town, she said, was an hour from Kerikeri, "and you've got to be really keen on living remotely or being close to Opononi and all the beaches there”.
The Kohukohu property Robus recently sold had attracted a lot of email and online interest, but not a lot of viewings. “We were very lucky that one of the guys who viewed it was very keen and moved up from Whangarei so it just all worked out well in the end," she said.
A Whangarei buyer recently snapped this Kohukohu home made from recycled materials. Photo / Supplied
“We did have quite a few people saying that they just weren't in the country yet or able to drive up and have a viewing, but a lot of people emailed about it.
“It was quite popular with everything that it had, with the extra cottage and the studio.”
OneRoof previously reported that the house had been built from recycled materials and regularly fooled everyone, from architecture lovers to estate agents, into believing it dated from the 1890s.
The house was, however, built in the early 2000s with all the hallmarks of a colonial cottage, such as high ceilings and wooden sash windows, but with the mod-cons of a 21st-century build.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Rawene
