Why house no. 74 ceased to be

The Arney Rd house sold for $2.9 million. Photo / Michael Craig

Seller changes house number to lure Chinese buyers.

Number 74 Arney Rd, Remuera, is somewhat like John Cleese's parrot sketch. It is no more. It has ceased to be.

The property has been 74 Arney Rd from 1923 until June this year when the street sequence of 72, 74 and 76 changed to 72, 72b and 76.

Auckland's property madness and the lure of Chinese money lies behind the change of address.

The woman who sold the property in September confirmed to the Herald on Sunday that the address was changed to attract Chinese buyers. "When you are selling you optimise the purchaser pool by making your house as attractive to as many people as possible.

"If you have got a feature that might put some people off then you do something about it if you can. It's a simple as that," said the woman, who did not want to be named.

She was referring to the number 4, which in Cantonese sounds like "death" and is considered an unlucky number.

In this case, the change of address was not lucky for the barrister owner, whose 200sqm property on the northern slopes of Remuera sold in September for $2.9 million.

"[It was] considerably less than what I would have liked," the woman said. The valuation was $2.4 million.

The house changed hands this month but the owner would not say if a Chinese buyer had bought it. The house is listed to rent.

A nearby resident said the change of address was a nonsense and hoped the new owners would "revert to nice old 74".

The owner did not know whether she could change the address "so I just thought I would give it a try and, as it turned out, I was able to".

Council building control manager Ian McCormick said the change of address was a genuine mistake that should not have happened.

Normally a change of address only applied for a subdivision or at the request of the emergency services. The process was initiated incorrectly by a staff member who believed it would be helpful. Changes would prevent it happening again, he said.

The council regularly had requests to alter street numbers, but was unaware of any other oversight like 74 Arney Rd.

David Soh, editor of the Chinese newspaper daily Mandarin Pages, said the number "8" was considered lucky because it sounded like "prosperity" and "wealth".

Last month, the Herald on Sunday reported that one of the four houses in the TV reality show, The Block: Villa Wars, had been given a change of address which meant it was in the valuable Mt Albert Grammar zone.

The change had the potential to boost the sale price by more than $120,000.

The corner property renovated by New Plymouth couple Cat Glass and Jeremy Hill was given a Renfrew Ave address.

Said Auckland Council building support manager Pam Style: "This is aligned to the addressing standards we have to adhere to. School zoning is not a part of our consideration for street numbering."