Stately Auckland villa shunted sideways for upmarket infill

A grand old Auckland villa that has housed businessmen-politicians, young Maori women and the set of a hit movie has been shunted sideways to make room for some upmarket infill.

The landmark Victorian mansion at 29 Hepburn St, Freemans Bay was last week moved 15.5m to allow the construction of a replica villa.

The old house, which sold in 2014 for $3.4 million, featured in the film The Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Drone footage shows the construction site 29 Hepburn St has become.

The Auckland Council last year gave consent for the mansion to be relocated. The Herald reported that the consent allowed for a single-level addition; consent for subdivision of the land and a new family home was pending.

In October, owner Simon Dunlop said in the Herald that the plan was to give the whole place a facelift when all the consents were approved.

"We are restoring it. We want to retain the heritage of the area."

Dating from the 1880s, the house was originally owned by merchant and Auckland deputy mayor Andrew Entrican. Its second owner was a businessman and MP, Captain William Crush Daldy.

For about 70 years from the mid-1940s the house was known as Te Kainga Aroha when it was a hostel for young Maori women, until the maintenance costs were considered too great by its owners.

Steve, whom Fairfax named as the current owner - he wished to remain anonymous - was quoted by the media company as saying that once the moved house was locked in place on top of its new basement, work would begin on the renovation.

"The only way we could afford to do the renovation was to split the land and the cost. The houses will each be on nearly 640 square metres."

When the run-down mansion was being marketed in 2014, it was described in the Herald property section as "stately but faded" and it had seven bedrooms.

"It perches atop large grounds alongside a couple of mature pohutukawa. Its uppermost roof ornament and the bulk of its airy open verandas remain."

It had "numerous leadlights, a high stud soaring above native timber floors and a grand staircase".