Iconic Garden City home overlooking Mona Vale for sale

An iconic Christchurch property with its own private island overlooking picturesque Mona Vale Gardens has gone on sale for the first time in 25 years.

The distinctly recognisable home, known as Mona Vale Hampton, will be familiar to walkers who have strolled through the popular gardens and seen the home across Wairarapa Stream.

Bayleys listing agent Adam Heazlewood said many Christchurch residents will instantly recognise the stately home at 47 Fendalton Rd.

“It’s a really special setting and this is why I said it’s like an iconic home in Fendalton because everyone who walks through Mona Vale with their dogs or [go] for a walk in general knows the house and it’s known as Hampton.”

The four-bedroom, two-bathroom home, described as “exuding old world charm”, sits on a gated 2529sq m section looking out to the stream and the beautifully manicured Mona Vale Gardens.

“It’s pretty unusual that you get to own a property with a river setting and it owns its own island as well,” Heazlewood said.

“It’s beautiful and more of a jewel in the crown really isn’t it having that as a point of difference ... it’s such a beautiful thing to look out to with the way it’s all landscaped and the river setting and the rest.”

The current owners purchased the land in 1997 before building the home in 2004, property records show. The property is being sold by deadline private treaty.

Heazlewood said properties in Fendalton are tightly held, especially those sitting on large sections and very few come to market.

“It’s getting harder to purchase riverfront properties that are on a large parcel of land – they are few and far between. I’ve sold two of them previously along Fendalton Road and typically they end up being held by the purchaser for a very long time and sometimes they can even be passed down generations.”

Christchurch’s most expensive suburb, with a median sales price of $1.5 million, is popular with locals due its central location, proximity to the river and good schooling – and in the last month there have been a number of sales in the area over $3 million.

Last week, a four-bedroom modern home on Helmores Lane sold under the hammer at Harcourts Grenadier for $6.8m, making it the most expensive home to sell in Fendalton this year.

Harcourts listing agent Alison Aitken told OneRoof that modern properties with large sections in the sought-after suburb are scarce and buyers are drawn to the area due to its unbeatable location.

“It’s a scarcity of properties like that – modern homes coming up on the market on big land areas in that prime location. We don’t have many.”

Properties like that on Helmores Lane were unique and “once in a lifetime” opportunities, she said.

Aitken is also marketing a brand new four-bedroom,four-bathroom home at 23 Desmond St, Fendalton, which is priced by negotiation.

The 539sq m home took two years to build and was designed by Canterbury architect David Sheppard for Sheppard + Rout and built by the award-winning Gregg Builders.

A OneRoof search for homes over $3 million in Fendalton revealed just four current listings - the Fendalton Rd and Desmond St properties, plus two listings for houses being sold off plan.

The exclusive homes being sold off plan were in the Daresbury subdivision at 67-71 Fendalton Rd and at 3/20A Wroxton Tce which is currently under construction.

-By Nikki Preston, OneRoof.co.nz