Room with a view at Devonport
One of the few remaining largely unaltered beach-front Auckland baches is on the market.
The Devonport home sits on a golden sand beach looking out to Rangitoto Island, with a lawn dotted with po¯hutukawa and palm trees.
Marketing for the 14 Arawa Ave property says it “has spanned generations of the same family who have cherished its heart-stopping beachfront position”.
The “charming, original character villa” has three bedrooms and one bathroom.
Heritage experts hope there will be few changes when the home — which has a 2017 Auckland Council valuation of $4.9 million — on Cheltenham Beach is sold.
Devonport Heritage deputy chairwoman Margot McRae said the beachside property was a classic example of a home from another era and a reminder of a time when life seemed simpler.
“It’s an original beach bach and precious as a beautiful example of holiday homes, built for people coming from the city before the bridge was built,” she said.
“It’s wonderful to see something like that in such original condition and we would hope any changes made are sympathetic and uphold its value, respecting its low-rise integrity.”
The site is zoned single-house under the Unitary Plan, protected with character overlays.
“It has as much protection as most houses in Devonport and it can’t be demolished as of right,” McRae said. “Any buyer would have to go through the whole resource consent process if they sought to demolish it, particularly because it’s pre1940s.
“But significant alterations can be almost as bad as demolition.” Devonport Heritage chairwoman Trish Deans said zoning allowed for a building height of 8m, “so an extra storey could be added”.
Property records showed owners of the 594sq m property were the late Betty Margaret Eleanor Wildman and Geoffrey McLeod Wildman. Heirs to their estate are the vendors.
The vendor family’s grandmother, Mabel Mason and her sister, had bought the home, perhaps around the 1930s and holidayed there from St Mary’s Bay. Victoria Bidwell, of Bayleys, marketing the property, also sold two other Cheltenham beachfront properties off nearby Rata Rd in the last year.
The houses at 4 and 10 Rata Rd are thought to have fetched more than $8.5m each. However, both were newer or renovated, and both stood on bigger sites than 14 Arawa Ave.