Tiny boat shed without bedroom, bathroom sells for record $1.25M

Real Estate

By Hannah Frishberg

July 7, 2023 | 6:59pm

Seeking to own an affordable space where it’s legal to sleep or use the loo? Not in this economy.

In the New Zealand city of Auckland, a pocket-size property that lacks either bedroom or bathroom has commanded an over $1 million sum.

Indeed, Boatshed 15 is really just one large room with an open dining area and kitchenette located off the entry in the front and a living room leading to the deck and jetty in the back. 

In all the converted boat shed totals just under 700 square feet and yet, in a sign of the times, the minuscule abode was purchased at auction for $1.2 million ($2 million in local currency) late last month, a record for the row of buildings that line this section of the Hobson Bay, the Guardian reported.

The price is notable not only for being the most expensive in the area but also for happening amid a housing market crash in New Zealand.

As well, zoning rules make it illegal for the owner to inhabit or stay overnight at the address, which has no toilet, shower, or legal title (just a license to occupy), according to the Guardian. 

The shed is, however, historic, quite cute and well renovated, boasts what an aerial photo shows to be one of the longer docks along the stretch, and is “very rare,” one of only 17 “iconic pieces of Auckland history,” New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Paul Sissons, who held the listing, told The Post. 

Traditionally, beginning in the 1930s, the sheds were handed down through generations of Auckland’s “elite,” who used them to “haul out, store and do winter maintenance on their boats — mostly launches,” Sissons explained. 

Over the decades, most have been upgraded into what is known locally as a “day bach,” where the owner can “retreat to relax and reset.”

Boatshed 15, Sissons noted, “is one of the better ones.”