A run-down Auckland house that was once slated for demolition is on the market after a stylish transformation that cost around $400,000.
Jess Driver and Thomas Ward bought the 1930s Art Deco home at 300 Point Chevalier Road in 2021 for just over $2.5 million, with plans to replace it with seven new homes.
The directors of architecture and project management company Driver Ward told OneRoof they drew up concept plans for the boutique development and listed the 637sqm site a year later, but with no takers they changed tack.
“We did buy it unfortunately at the height of the market,” Driver said.
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“We were going back and forth about what we did with this site. But the market conditions have not been great, and we also liked the Art Deco home.”
Driver said the couple realised that they should abandon the demolition and make the most of the house’s charm. “So many of these homes just go into landfill, and it’s a real shame.”
To fund their restoration of the Art Deco home, the couple subdivided the back section at 300A, a generous 326sqm flat site which they are selling separately with concept plans for a new house.
The original Art Deco house was for many years a well-known pottery studio and sat on a valuable 637sqm section on a street zoned for townhouses. Photo / Supplied
The architect/designer owners rebuilt the tired rear extension of the house, installing a new kitchen, bathrooms and master suite. Photo / Supplied
“[It was] the way for us to get our money back, essentially. A lot of people are sitting on sites, and they do not realise that they have a section that can actually be subdivided.”
Driver said the couple rebuilt the existing home from top to bottom.
“We rebuilt the whole top floor and back half,” Driver said, adding the front was in sound, classic Deco-style cement and solid native timbers.
Two clever design moves helped the couple make better use of the home’s footprint. A mirrored, panelled box inserted between the front living room and rear kitchen, in what was once the hallway, conceals a pantry and family bathroom. Elsewhere, a wall of reeded glass has transformed a dark, poky purple bathroom into a light-filled laundry and powder room.
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The build, which Driver estimates cost around $400,000, included re-cladding the dated addition, bringing in new double-glazing, insulation and wood flooring.
Driver repeated walnut and vintage-style reeded glass around the house and focused on bringing as much light and sun into the dated home. “We were just trying to be as clever as possible about how to add the amenity and do it sympathetically. We turned it into a really cool feature,” she said.
The couple salvaged original leadlight windows, native timber doors, and ceiling plasterwork. They found modern light fixtures with deco lines and repeated a vintage-look green marble tile through the house, from the front door through to the kitchen and bathroom. Driver even created 30s-style handles on the kitchen cabinets and bedroom closets.
The owners inserted a mirrored and panelled box to create a new family bathroom and kitchen pantry. Photo / Supplied
The back section of the house was subdivided into a 326sqm section, which comes with concepts for a new home. Photo / Supplied
Outside, the overgrown front and side yards were cleared and planted, while the back of the house, wrapped in tall white fencing, has a deck and tiled patio for afternoon barbecues. In front, a deco-style hit-and-miss brick fence keeps the yard private from the street and two off-street car parks.
Bayleys agent Jackson Tariau, who is marketing the two properties at 300 and 300A with colleagues David Simons and Jennifer Munns, said that the charm and quality of the renovation may push the price of the house to $2m, well above recent sales of similar three-bedroom renovations in the area.
The agents are hoping the back section could go for as much as $1m.
“Typically, Art Deco houses tend to be more popular because it has that extra charm over a lot of other houses in Point Chev,” Tariau said, adding that places north of Meola Road and close to the beach are prime. “Every man and his dog wants them.”
Interest in the property is already high, he said, from a mix of first-home buyers, second-home buyers moving closer to the city from more western suburbs and downsizers keen to build a new home to their own design.
- 300 Point Chevalier Road, Point Chevalier, Auckland, is for sale by negotiation
