A $9.8 million gain from a single sale has made the owners of a waterfront mansion in Auckland's St Heliers New Zealand's biggest property winners in the last quarter.
The Rendell family - famous for founding the Rendell Department Store on Karangahape Rd - originally paid just $700,000 in 1984 for their exclusive 27 Hanene St property with its stunning Rangitoto Island views.
But in May this year - after earlier building a new home on the site in the 1990s - they sold the property for a whopping $10.5m to rich lister pair Michael and Pauline Reid, according to analyst CoreLogic's latest Pain & Gain report.
Reid already owns another mega clifftop mansion a few doors down, estimated to be worth $23m by Auckland Council.
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Rich lister Michael Reid who already owns the St Heliers clifftop mansion on the left of the picture has bought a second mansion a few doors down. Photo / Supplied
The Rendell family's huge windfall puts them among the 91 per cent of city home owners who made a gain between April and June by selling a property for a higher price than they originally paid.
In total, Auckland home sellers pocketed $1.24 billion in gains last quarter - or about $339,000 for a typical property.
CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall said it showed many homeowners were still sitting on gold mines.
"Those gains reflect the fact we've been through a huge growth period," he said.
Those profits came on the back of a near decade-long period of skyrocketing house prices in which home values doubled in many Auckland suburbs.
It meant sellers could barely do a bad deal with 99 per cent of Auckland homes sold in 2017 going for a gain.
However, house prices have now begun to slide with the city's average value of $1.025m on August 1 being 2.6 per cent down compared to a year ago, CoreLogic data showed.
That in turn led to almost 9 per cent of all Auckland homes sold between April and June this year to go for a loss.
Those losses totalled $21m, with a typical city property losing about $31,000, according to CoreLogic.
CoreLogic senior property economist Kelvin Davidson said Auckland's rising "pain" was consistent with wider market forces.
"Listings are high, buyers are patient, and so to get sales over the line, some sellers are having to accept less than what they paid," he said.
And while the number of homes selling for a loss wasn't yet high, it was growing, Davidson said.
The 9 per cent of homes selling for a loss last quarter, compared to 6 per cent making a loss in the first quarter and just 1 per cent in 2017.
Of the homes making a loss last quarter, 68 per cent had been owned for three years or less, according to CoreLogic.
Owen Vaughan, editor of property website OneRoof, said sliding Auckland house prices meant more people would now suffer some pain when selling.
"Many of those properties were bought near the peak of the property boom from 2016-onwards, and therefore the amount of profit they are making is dwindling," he said.
But Grahan Wall, whose luxury real estate company sold the Rendells' 27 Hanene St home, said most top-end houses were still selling for big gains.
He expected to complete the sale of three luxury homes to Kiwi expats returning from Hong Kong this week and pointed to how his agency sold a Westmere mansion at 15 Cremorne Rd last year for $27.5m.
The home with its own helicopter pad had been bought for just $12.5m less than a decade earlier in 2009.
Across New Zealand, 95 per cent of those who sold in the last quarter made a gain.
And while this percentage was historically high, it was also trending down - being at its lowest since 2016.
In total, sellers made $3.4b in gains last quarter, down from the $5.2b in gains made in mid-2016.
With about 5 per cent of homes making a loss, total losses added up to $38m for a loss of $23,000 on a typical house.
Apartments were being hit hardest, with about 15 per cent selling for a loss last quarter, compared to just 4 per cent of houses.
Elsewhere, just 0.6 per cent of Wellington homes sold for a loss last quarter, while 3 per cent of Tauranga homes sold for a loss and 11 per cent of Christchurch sellers took a hit.
Biggest winners
The five Kiwi homes sold for the greatest gains between April and June, according to CoreLogic data:
• 27 Hanene St, St Heliers: bought for $700,000 in 1984 and sold for $10.5m this year for a $9.8m gain.
• 71 Marine Parade, Mount Maunganui: bought for $355,000 in 1988 and sold for $6m this year for a $5.65m gain.
• 39 Maungakiekie Ave, Greenlane: bought for $1.7m in 2006 and sold for $6.1m this year for a $4.4m gain.
- New Zealand Herald
