Bidding on the four-bedroom home on Kesteven Avenue, in Auckland’s Glendowie, kicked off $3.3m - just under its RV of $3.58m - and quickly reached $4m, before the Barfoot & Thompson auction was paused for negotiations.
The property came to the floor five minutes later, and the auction roared back into action, with 20 more bids made before the hammer came down.
Barfoot & Thompson listing agent Jonathan Viljoen told OneRoof that a local family won the auction and the house. The underbidder had registered to take part in the auction last night, and was distraught to have fallen short by $5000.
He said the buyers were overjoyed. "It is very emotional. I think they may just go home and enjoy the champagne and let it settle in.”
The vendors were also thrilled with the result. “Passive houses have two purposes: to enjoy when you’re in them, and to keep their value. It’s a 13-year-old house, and it has sold well above market,” they said.
They added: “It was too big for two people. Our plan is to build a similar passive house, version two."
The house boasts one of the country's lowest power bills, thanks to the energy-efficient systems that run through it, and was on the market for the first time since it was built 13 years ago
It was the first home in Australasia to adopt the Passivhaus (Passive House) standard, which has brought about buildings with little or no heating requirements.
Auctioneer Murray Smith told OneRoof that it had been a while since he had had an auction “crack $4m".
“It is a significant achievement in that part of Glendowie. The bidding was strong. The house was worthy of Grand Designs. You could see it as soon as you walked in the door."
He said conditional buyers could no longer afford to wait in the wings, hoping that their dream property passed in at auction. “We’re heading to the end of the days where you can rest comfortably. You’ve just got to get your act together and get ready [to bid]. An unconditional price is always the best price, because the buyers are genuinely committed.”
One of the vendors told OneRoof the story of the house last month. An engineer from Canada, he had found New Zealand homes to be cold and damp, so he decided to build something better from scratch.
However, creating a home to Passive House standards wasn't an easy task. Luckily, he was able to get help from one of the few Kiwis who knew about the building techniques, Queenstown building science engineer Denise Martin. She assisted with the calculations needed to ensure the house met the strict global standards. He also had help from Auckland Council’s then head of design, Ludo Campbell-Reid, who walked planners through the consents.
“There were no materials in New Zealand, there was no knowledge in New Zealand,” the vendor said. “At that point [in 2011], the council was very worried about leaky buildings. Someone in council said to me, ‘Our air is different from the air in Europe, so it won’t work here.’
“Ludo was doing a lot of innovative work here, and he helped get people to listen. He had other people from the university backing up the data."
Before submitting final plans for building approval, the vendor estimated he had dozens of meetings with council officers over the space of six months. "It was like, ‘No, we don’t do those here.’ They were just doing their job. People were nervous. No one was rude, but they got sick of seeing me,” he said.
“Then once we built it, other people used our building consents as a basis for their applications, so it became easier.”
Builder Chris Foley was key to the project's success, the vendor said.
"He's become a dear friend. He did not think I was too crazy. He did not fully know what he was getting involved with, but he did this when everything we did was brand new.
Foley reported that the house won the overall house award at the 2015 South Pacific Passive House Awards and the single-family home category at the 2014 International Passive House Awards.
Developed in Germany, the Passive House is an internationally recognised standard for sustainable architecture. Scientific investigation of Passive Houses proves their heating – and cooling – energy consumption is 80 per cent lower than conventional buildings.
Key elements are thermal windows, highly insulated walls, ceiling and floor slab, heat recovery and an air-tight building envelope. A ventilation system draws air from the interior and uses the heat contained in the outgoing air to warm the incoming fresh air.
Learn more about New Zealand’s first passive house
Original published on One Roof 9 September 2025 By Catherine Smith