So here’s a lesson in millionaire math.
There’s Paritai Drive, considered Auckland’s most glamorous street.
And then there’s the dress circle of Paritai Drive, where a mere 26 homes have CVs of over $6 million. And that’s the bit that Graham Wall and his son Andrew are focusing on with their listing at 44 Paritai Drive.
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“We say there are only about 20 really good houses on Paritai, the rest are ‘beginner slopes’,” says Wall, the younger.
Since Wall senior set the New Zealand record for the sale of Hanover co-founder Mark Hotchin’s house for $38.5 million in 2013 (strictly speaking, the corner site has an address at Huriaro Place, but was combined with a property on 56 Paritai), Andrew says “there is some serious young money turning up, exciting young families who you would have expected to see in Herne Bay.”
That would be Cremorne St, Herne Bay where 15 properties have an average CV of $6.3 million. Fenton Circle, the next door street to Paritai just off Huriaro Place is pretty close: there the median value of a mere 10 properties is $4.6 million.
See the Auckland's highest priced streets here.
But it’s not just about the price. Like fine wines or collectors’ cars, it’s also about the rarity value. OneRoof numbers show that in 10 years only 12 of Paritai Drive’s 163 $6 million plus properties have come on the market. The most recent was over two years ago, in June 2017. At the market peak, only two sold in 2016 and another four the year before.
So that means would-be buyers are expected to pay well over 44’s CV of $7 million. Wall says the owners, who paid $8 million in August 2015, have turned down offers over $9 million, but more recent offers are closer to the $10 million mark. The former American consulate is being marketed as ripe for improvement, as are many houses on this end of the street, where Wall says a generation of older owners is sitting on big land with somewhat dated houses.
Wall points to some pretty spectacular renovations happening behind the exclusive gateways, including new owners who have spent as much as the multi-million dollar purchase price on a complete makeover.
He reckons a smart buyer renovating a property like this would get $20 million, as a new generation of buyers replaces the old. Look out old money, the serious smart young money is heading east again.
