- The “Up” house in Onehunga has been sold to a land-banker for less than $1.2m.
- The property, known for resisting urban development, was not purchased by Dress Smart’s owners.
- The late owner, Joy McHardie, had declined offers for over 30 years before her death in 2021.
New Zealand’s “Up” house has found a new owner, OneRoof can reveal.
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The dilapidated two-bedroom villa wedged in the middle of Auckland’s Dress Smart mall, in Onehunga, was snapped up by a land-banker at the start of the month.
Barfoot & Thompson listing agent Wendy Sadd declined to disclose the sale price but told OneRoof that the property had sold for less than the asking price of $1.2 million.
The property sits on nearly 600sqm of flat land and is flanked by concrete buildings on either side. Photo / Supplied
The villa’s location and look are reminiscent of the house from the Pixar movie Up. Photo / Disney
The odd-looking green house on Church Street is well-known to Dress Smart shoppers. It is surrounded by high concrete walls and is reminiscent of the house in the blockbuster Pixar movie Up – a last hold-out against urban development.
It was thought that Dress Smart’s overseas owners would be first in line to scoop it up. However, the mall passed on the opportunity.
Sadd, who marketed the property with colleague Michelle Ballinger, told OneRoof: “Dress Smart didn’t have the appetite to do anything with this piece of land, so it was a private buyer who got it in the end. He’ll hold it and see if the appetite appears from some other private buyers in the future.”
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Sadd and Ballinger had described the property as a “golden opportunity that’s not to be missed”.
The late owner, Joy McHardie, had consistently rebuffed offers for at least 30 years. “She was very private, and she would have just said, ‘No thank you’,” Sadd told OneRoof when the property hit the market earlier this year.
McHardie’s family were farmers and had moved from Ōhura, Manawatū-Whanganui, to Auckland for work prospects in the 1950s. “The whole family moved up and all lived in that house in Onehunga,” Sadd said.
McHardie was young when they moved to Onehunga and became a nurse when she left school. She later gave up work to nurse her mother, who died in the family home aged 97.
There are three other properties that border Dress Smart, on the corner of Arthur and Galway streets, two of which are owned by Kāinga Ora. Photo / Supplied
Dress Smart’s owner Lendlease has plans to upgrade and expand the shopping mall. Photo / Alex Burton
“Joy lived in the house until 2016, when she became unwell and moved into a rest home,” Sadd said. “Her family held onto the house because she had lived her whole life there. That was her house. That was her memory. She wanted to live out her years in that house.”
McHardie died aged 95 in 2021, but her house has left an impression on thousands of Aucklanders, including Sadd. “This has always been my area, and I spend a lot of time in Onehunga. I would always see that little green house and wonder – it’s the last little gem left in that whole area. I didn’t know the backstory then, but I knew without a doubt someone was determined to live out their years there.”
Sadd told OneRoof that once that area of Church Street was zoned commercial in the 1970s, the old cottages disappeared one by one until only the McHardie home was left. The arrival of Dress Smart in 1995 saw the property overshadowed by the mall’s parking zone.
In 2018 Dress Smart’s owner, Lendlease, bought two properties next to the mall and cleared the site. Another three homes next to the mall on the corner of Arthur and Galway streets are believed to be rental properties. One has been owned for more than two decades by an investor, and the other two are owned by Kāinga Ora.
Lendlease confirmed to OneRoof in March that its plans to expand Dress Smart on car-park land on the other side of the mall were on track. The expansion includes a three-level retail project with new shops and food and beverage outlets, and construction is expected to begin this year.
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