Canterbury manor with indoor climbing wall, 18-car garage sold
A large Canterbury home with an indoor climbing wall and 18-car garage has been snapped up by a local family after interest from as far away as the US and UK.
Bayleys listing agent Chris Jones told Oneroof.co.nz he was unable to disclose the sale price of the six-bedroom estate on Tai Tapu Road in the Selwyn district.
But he told OneRoof he had only shown the property, which has an RV of just $5 million, to qualified buyers.
"It generated quite a bit of inquiry because it's not something you see every day, with the garaging and the climbing wall. It's a massive home.
"We had 10 people through, and at the higher end of the lifestyle market that is a lot. The vendors were very pleased.'
A climbing wall in the two-storey home. Photo: Supplied
He said many of the overseas buyers were frustrated to learn that they weren't qualified to buy in New Zealand.
"The Americans do not really understand our rules. They say: 'We'd like to buy that' and don't understand why they cannot. Even on the new investment visa, it is not a five-minute process getting residency."
The 1373sq m home was larger than most city sections and sat on more than 4ha beside the Halswell River.
One of the vendors told OneRoof the previous owners, Canterbury racing enthusiasts Debbie and Dennis Chapman, had installed the two-storey professional-grade climbing wall that shoots through the inside of the home.
The wall was built for their then-teenage children and came with an auto belay system. The garage has a car hoist, extra-height doors for boats and a kitchenette and bathroom. At one point there was an indoor pool, but the vendors covered it up and turned the room into an entertaining space. They also converted a go-cart room into a large billiards/pool room, complete with a kauri table from the Mataura Paper Mill employees' social clubrooms.
The vendors, Richard and wife Lynda, said they bought the estate after their beloved 'forever home' was nearly destroyed in the 2010 Christchurch earthquake. They told OneRoof in April that they were selling because they had found a way to repair their old home.
'It's one of those earthquake stories where your house is a write-off, you don't know if it can be repaired, you think you're going to move on and then find you can fix it,' they told OneRoof.
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