- Designer Dinah Malyon has sold her Remuera townhouse, with buyers also purchasing some of her furniture.
- The sale was completed in five days, facilitated by Pene Milne from New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty.
- Malyon, founder of DMI Home Staging, has criticised the current state of the home staging industry.
New Zealand’s home staging queen has sold her stylish Auckland townhouse – and the buyers also made an offer on her furniture.
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Dinah Malyon, who made her name with DMI Home Staging, told OneRoof that the couple sealed the deal less than a week after first viewing the three-bedroom Remuera townhouse.
“They came through twice. They’d already sold their place, so it just took five days to become unconditional,” Malyon said.
“They have got a pretty good eye; they do not have to do anything. They can just move in; it is so easy.”
Included in the sale deal were some of her stylish furniture pieces – though not everything as Malyon initially hoped.
Dinah Malyon and her daughter Philly at DMI Home Staging’s warehouse in 2019. “I’ve been undercut by people who are buying s*** furniture.” Photo / Ted Baghurst
Malyon included some of her furniture in the sale. Photo / Supplied
Malyon installed a completely new kitchen with marble benches and mosaic tile. Photo / Supplied
The design expert said she was selling off the rest of her collection (or giving it away to her children), although she intends to keep some special pieces for the new family bach she is building in Taupō.
Malyon admitted she was “terrified about moving”.
“It was such a good place to live,” she said. “I thought it would be my long-term home, but the years we’ve been there, I think we’ve done quite well considering.”
The property on Joseph Banks Terrace hit the market at the start of the year with New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Pene Milne.
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Milne told OneRoof that there had been a lot of interest over the campaign, but much of it was conditional. “A lot of buyers had to sell their homes first, and that affects trading across the board,” she said.
Milne could not disclose the sale price, but the property had been listed with an asking price of $3.295 million.
When Malyon bought the townhouse, she quickly updated it, landscaping the courtyard garden, expanding a bathroom, redoing the kitchen with marble and putting in new flooring and lighting.
Malyon no longer owns DMI Home Staging, which she founded in the 1990s, but she still does the odd commission. Back in January, she was blunt about the state of home staging today, particularly at the lower end of the market.
“It is such a cutthroat business now. Those others are undercutting everyone – the people with the good furniture that helps sell the properties. I’ve been undercut by people who are buying s*** furniture and are devaluing a property by doing it wrong.
“Now I feel it’s become a bit sterile. The [staging] kind of looks like Kmart – worse and worse.”
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