North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Derelict Takapuna home for sale: $8m
An unfinished home on a prized beachfront site, once at the centre of a ‘‘petty’’ High Court neighbourhood feud, is selling in Takapuna for $8 million-plus.
The concrete framework of a three-storey home remains on the overgrown site at 27 Minnehaha Avenue, in between homes with rateable values upwards of $7m on New Zealand’s second most expensive street.
Precision Real Estate’s agent selling the site, Andrew Dorreen, said he had received ‘‘reasonable interest’’ for what he described as ‘‘New Zealand’s best waterfront opportunity’’.
Dorreen is advertising the site with architectural plans, suggesting to prospective buyers they could continue to build on the existing framework, or bowl it down and start a new build.
He would not say whether interested buyers were keen to build or bowl.
Public documents show neighbours living in 23, 25 and 29 Minnehaha Ave stopped the previous owners of number 27, Erik and Diana Marjo, from building a home over 10 metres high because it would block their views and exposure to sunlight.
The Marjos were taken to the High Court by two neighbours in December 2014 who claimed Erik Marjo misled them about the height of his soon-to-be-built home to gain their approval for building consent.
Then residents of 25 Minnehaha Ave, Richard Schipper, 29 Minnehaha Ave’s Bradley Reid, and 23 Minnehaha Ave’s Terence and Michelle Fleming, all told the court that Erik Marjo said his new build would not be any higher than the original house.
Marjo’s house was set to be 10.5 metres high, an extra 0.7m than the previous house he bowled down in 2012.
Marjo denied misleading his neighbours. He told the court that when he spoke to his neighbours in 2012, he did not know how high his new home would be.
High Court Justice Rebecca Ellis said in her judgment that the dispute between the neighbours was ‘‘petty and irritating’’.
The judge ruled the Marjos must halt building work on the third floor of their unfinished home until granted resource consent from the Auckland Council.
They were allowed to continue building on the lower levels of the home. The state of the site suggests they did not continue building.