The famous Outrageous Fortune house has been demolished. Photo / Siobhrin Burmester
The famous Outrageous Fortune house has been demolished. Photo / Siobhrin Burmester
A two-storey house in West Auckland made famous as the set of crime dramas Outrageous Fortune and Westside has now been demolished.
A photo shared on Facebook shows a pile of rubble on the Te Atatū site where the Kiwi icon once sat. Now seven townhouses selling for around $700,000each will be built in its place.
Outrageous Fortune, which followed the story of Wolf West, his wife Cheryl and their four children, and its prequel show Westside have been set in the iconic house since 2005. Since then, the house has become something of a local tourist attraction.
As of February, three of the seven townhouses that are to replace the fictional home of TV's gritty West family had already been sold at $689,000.
The 1960s-era house in the Auckland suburb of Te Atatū sat on a 931sq m site which had been zoned for intensification under Auckland's Unitary Plan, the blueprint for Auckland's future economic and housing needs.
The two-bedroom, two-storey townhouses are being sold by Barfoot & Thompson.
In March last year, the house's previous owner Frank Dewhirst told the Herald there were problems with the foundations.
"A hundred metres away a house has been removed and multiple units put up," Dewhirst said.
According to the Unitary Plan, the house is zoned residential - mixed housing urban zone.
Up to three dwellings are permitted as of right under that zoning, subject to compliance with standards. Resource consent is needed for four or more dwellings.
Filming on the sixth and final season of Westside was completed by July last year and went to air in September, South Pacific Pictures head of communications Rachael Keereweer said.
Tandi Wright as Mandy the Mauler, right, and Antonia Prebble as Loretta in Outrageous Fortune. Photo / South Pacific Pictures
Antonia Prebble, who played Loretta West and Rita West on the show, told Stuff she was "gutted" the house was being knocked down.
"So many people turn up at the exterior set of the house and they just want to see it, this iconic West house. It's so important to people and it's like this other character in the show."
Prebble said she'd spent so much time there that when Westside wrapped filming, it felt like she was leaving her family home.
