

HERITAGE
39 Lemon Grove Avenue, Otumoetai
Offering privacy and exclusivity, positioned on a ridgeline with breathtaking views of the Tauranga Harbour. A generous arrivals area is wondrously dominated by an ancient Beech tree and leads into a delightful interior with preserved timber floors, high ceilings, ornate mouldings and beautiful wooden joinery. A grand lounge, dining area, and kitchen offer seamless connections to a covered verandah and endless water views. The ground floor also includes a study, large guest bedroom and bathroom with potential for multigenerational living. Upstairs, the master bedroom is a true sanctuary, while three additional bedrooms provide ample space and share next-level harbour views. This unique opportunity includes an inground pool, cohesive landscaping, extensive storage, and garaging with a workshop.
Presenting immaculately having been fully repainted inside and out, with modernised electrics and lighting, this home will tug at your heartstrings and call to you for the next chapter of its history.
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Status: Now Sold!
Collection: Autumn 2025
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Ben Hawan
Luxury Real Estate Specialist+64 21 174 7305
ben@oliverroad.co.nz
Jason Eves
Luxury Real Estate Specialist
FEATURING
The property is set well off the road offering privacy and exclusivity, its driveway placing it ahead of neighbouring properties for a prime position on the gentle ridgeline. Front row seats to the ever-changing sweeping vista of the Tauranga Harbour.
The arrivals area is generous in its provision of hardscaped parking and is dominated by an ancient European Beech tree, marking arrival at a long-valued location. A covered entryway and solid wooden front door open to an expanse of beautifully preserved timber flooring that connects the ends of this home via its main hallway, with views to the gardens and wall space for treasured artworks and family memories.
At the west end of the home, you’ll find a grand lounge with a gas fireplace, widely connected to a similarly scaled dining room and kitchen. These spaces share extensive joinery opening to the covered outdoors and frame the most immediate and immersive harbour views one could hope to live with; this connection with the water is inescapable from almost every part of this home. Ceilings abound with original ornate mouldings, and the wooden flooring, stud heights, and immaculate wooden joinery with brass hardware provide an unforgettable sense of substance.
The kitchen is an inviting space full of rimu, craftsmanship, and character. A large island with a second sink supports a wall of storage cupboards, display space, and a generous corner pantry with a powered benchtop. In the middle of the home, the kitchen links the entry hall, dining room and outdoor living spaces in a practical manner and, with its own living area, is the home’s social centre.
At the eastern end of the ground floor sits an inviting study that’s large enough to re-purpose as an additional living space and would be well suited as a media room. Alongside is a very large guest bedroom with its own outdoor access and bathroom. The large laundry occupies the home’s corner closest to the property’s garaging and provides a utility entrance to the home. If you are looking for multigenerational living, the floorplan at this eastern end of the home lends itself nicely to the creation of an independent living area.
A stairway alongside the study door leads gently up to a large family bathroom with a beautiful clawfoot bath and separate shower. A wide hallway, substantially glazed, bright and bathed in green from the ancient Beech tree outside, connects the accommodations on this first floor.
The master bedroom ideally occupies the northwest end. Large, bright, sunny, and quiet, it is a true sanctuary. Its sizable dressing room/walk-in wardrobe, in-wall wardrobe and shelving, and large storage room ideal for suitcases and other overflow make this a really unique space. The incredible harbour and Mount views and delightful window planter box take the experience of this space to the next level. A generous ensuite with twin vanities completes this desirable offering.
Three other generously sized bedrooms with double wardrobes on the first floor also benefit from their northerly aspect, stunning views and decorative planter boxes of their own. These planter boxes, part of a later verandah addition to the home, sit outside the home’s envelope and are independently waterproofed to provide a sound and uncommon addition to the home’s aesthetic inside and out.
The number and volume of storage spaces throughout is beyond what’s typically seen or expected.
The inviting inground concrete pool is privately positioned to catch most of the day’s sun. Its compliant pool fencing features a large, padlocked section of sliding fence, allowing the area to be widely opened to the home when required. A discrete pool pump house, hidden in the landscaping, shares the home’s terracotta roof tiles.
Landscaping provides a formal foreground to the view. It is curated and structured but not overly so, and despite its intricate patio, decorative verandah, and curbed planter beds, it remains relaxed and family-friendly. The fully fenced and gated portion contains the main gardens and outdoor living spaces, making it an ideal confine for pets and young children. A gardener’s room with a plumbed sink sits attached to the side of the home between the garaging and the laundry entry. This room supports the yard and the adjacent raised vegetable garden area.
The two-car garage, connected workshop area, and single carport were added later in this home's history but are deliberately in keeping with the home, complementing the property’s functionality and aesthetics. This is rarely found space and utility in a central residential setting.
Presenting immaculately with a recent full repaint inside and out and modernised electrics and lighting, this home will tug at your heartstrings and call to you for the next chapter of its history.
A Closer Look
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Five Bedrooms
Three Bathrooms
Three Indoor Living Spaces
Study
Laundry
Gardener’s Room
2 Car Garaging + Workshop + Single Carport (80 m2)
323 m2* Internal Floor Area
1,599 m2 Land Area
*Online area indications could not be confirmed on building plans
(All measurements approximate)
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Pre-existing home, no information on file. Believed the original home was built in 1932 by Tonkin & Carswell.
1949. Major alteration to create full first floor by raising portion of existing roof to create 2 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms, and minor alteration to ground floor to create waiting room and powder room.
Work was commenced without Council permit at the time, and the Council took legal proceedings against the builder, which are noted to have been completed, and, as such, a letter revoking the stop work order was provided by the district building offer in Oct 1949. Works were completed as planned. Few records available which may relate to Otumoetai becoming part of the Tauranga Borough around that time.
Concrete bearers with wooden piles supporting a wooden subfloor/floor
Underfloor insulation polyester batts
Timber framing and solid plaster stucco cladding (substrate unknown)
Wooden single-glazed joinery
Terracotta clay roof tiles
Metal guttering and downpipes
Insulation ceiling Insufluff and glass wool (identified in visible/inspectable areas)
1961. Application for conversion of two units into three
It does not appear this work was ever commenced/completed.
1961 Erect Garage with screen walls, corrugate iron roof and storage room
No longer present
1975 BP. Town Sewage Connection
1982 BP. Extension of drainage for 4 new basins, and a w/c and a shifted existing bath.
1984 BP. Extension of drainage
1992 BP. Erect New Carport and Add Deck to Dwelling by Ian Butcher with Moyles Construction.
North side terrace and verandah added
1992 BP. Construct Swimming Pool with Bay Pools & Spas Ltd
Inground custom concrete pool
Standard chlorination and pump system
2002 BC. New Garage (56m2) and Carport (24m2) with Moyles Construction. CCC 2006
Neighbours at 35A Lemon Grove consented reduced boundary setback 24/03/02
100mm concrete slab foundation
Timber framing with steel portal and building paper wrap
Hardietex cladding with areas of “stucco effect” decorative plaster to match house
Wooden and Aluminium joinery with single glazing
Terracotta clay tiles to match house
Wooden sectional double garage door
2002 BC. Kitchen Alteration and Shower Install with Rex Moyle. CCC 2002
Kitchen enlarged to occupy existing space and neighbouring store/bedroom.
Shower added to downstairs/Guest powder room
2004 BC. Shift Toilet, Alter Ensuite and Create Studio. CCC 2006
This space has subsequently become the master bedroom dressing room/walk-in wardrobe
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Floor coverings
Window dressings
Light fittings
Asko dishwasher
Panasonic microwave
Ilive 5 gas burner stove
Rangehood
Insinkerator Wastemaster
Filterpure inline tap filter
Electric hot water cylinder (x3, 180l kitchen,135L bathrooms family and master)
Under-tile heating (family bathroom and master ensuite)
Heated towel rails (x3)
Bathroom extractor fans (x3)
Control-A-Door 4 auto garage door & remotes (x3)
Fibre connection
F&P top loading washing machine
Pool and pool accessories (includes robot vacuum)
Clothes line
Cat door (laundry)
Bird bath (pool side of home)
Plastic compost bins (x2)
Storage unit (in garage)
Table (in garage)
TV aerial (not connected)
Outdoor Fireplace
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LOT 2 DPS 7087
CT SA1A/1183
Tauranga City Council
Medium Density Residential Zone
Freehold Estate
Rating valuation $2,120,000
Rates $6,475.10
IFF Levy $171.70
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Status: Now Sold!
Collection: Autumn 2025
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Ben Hawan
Luxury Real Estate Specialist+64 21 174 7305
ben@oliverroad.co.nz
Jason Eves
Luxury Real Estate Specialist