New Zealand businessman and Trump White House aide Chris Liddell reportedly paid the deposit on a $15 million penthouse apartment in The International, the ex-Fonterra headquarters, bordering Albert Park in the central city.
Down the hill, the top floor of downtown Pacifica is asking $35 million, and the $9.25m sale for the yet-to-be-built Parnell apartments broke last year’s apartment record of $8.7m in Remuera.
Apart from the requisite carparks for wheels, a media room, private lifts and a scullery (for the caterers to discreetly come and go) the marketing accessory is a “winter garden” — think terrace on steroids, complete with windows and shutters to cope with those Auckland summer rains at such heights.
But if that’s too rich for your pocket then at the other end of the scale, small studio apartments for student lets went for as low as $60,000 to $70,000 in Beach Rd and Anzac Ave. The cheapest single family home, in Clendon Park in the south, went for $265,000 — a similar stand-alone is on the market now in Flat Bush for $280,000.
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A brave buyer bought a pair of run down one-bedroom flats in Panmure for $182,000 each, and there’s a similar bargain to be had in Point England now (with 291sq m of dirt, the two-bedder is asking $280,000).
This may be the way to go, as it’s only a few blocks from public transport hub, a couple of blocks from the parks along the Tamaki Estuary and on the fringe of the Tamaki regeneration.
Similar transit-oriented locations will be the new development hubs, as private developers follow the ground-breaking regeneration led by Panuku in places like Avondale, Panmure and Onehunga.
Despite tiny houses being the Pinterest dream for property hunters longing to start on the ladder, there are few trading on the market.
The challenge in Auckland, as in many other local authorities, is finding land and jumping through consenting processes to hook up to sanitation and power sources.
A charming 40sq m conversion of two containers on a Hawke's Bay farm, featured in magazines and its own video, recently changed hands for $165,000 (the owners are off to do the same on another lifestyle block), but we couldn’t track down any Auckland sales this year.
Closer to home, Premium agent Trish Love’s listing of a tiny former sugar worker’s cottage in Birkenhead Pt had the most visitors and excitement of the year. The petite cottage (barely 7 m x 10m ) with two bedrooms and an adjoining cabin, was hidden up a pathway (no street frontage) with a stunning garden and several magazine stories to its credit. The new owners sold their villa in Ponsonby for this one-level retirement option.
Downsizing boomers prepared to ditch the car are the target for new build property developers, too, led by Okham Residential’s Daisy that upset the talk-back brigade earlier this year with its zero carparks.
In the same Uptown (formely known as Eden Terrace) neighbourhood, close to the future CRL hub, Urban Collective’s Steve Groves and Kelly McEwan are the company behind the 100-some apartment block replacing the legendary Kings Arms pub in France Street. Their Citizen apartments re-fitted the old Air New Zealand data centre behind the Orange Hall.
“We’re picking sites now where cars aren’t important,” says Groves. “In 2014 when we did 38 carparks for 24 apartments in Grey Lynn, nimbys said that was terrible, not even two carparks per apartment.
“This year, halfway through selling 58 France (former Kings Arms) we’d sold just 19 carparks for 50 apartments.”
“Younger ones aren’t buying cars, they’re walking everywhere,” adds McEwan. “You can buy an awful lot of Uber rides for the price of owning a car and a carpark.”
If you did want to buy a carpark, however, you’d be paying $70,000 plus (OneRoof research found $145,000 for a tandem park with storage locker).
If deep, old history is more your thing, the historic Huntly House in Grafton, home of one of Auckland’s early commercial families, speaks of an era long gone in the city.
The 326sq m mansion on nearly 1600sq m of land has city views, servants’ quarters and five main bedrooms. The family is still in negotiations to sell, says Bayleys agent David Rainbow.
Also full of historic charm, with the crucial addition of a rentable accessory dwelling, is the old harbour master’s cottage in Herne Bay.
Custom Residential’s Nic Blackie has noticed an interest by buyers in properties that have potential to convert to a minor dwelling, either for rental income, or for granny, nanny or returning kids.
“People are looking at more warehouse conversions or similar. I like the idea of old shop fronts being re-purposed, but they are rare,” she says.
