The agent who has broken residential sales records this year is delighted with the achievement.
The New Zealand Herald reported that an Auckland home formerly owned by the Kiwi director of Shrek and the Chronicles of Narnia sold to former All Black Ali Williams and the sister of billionaire Zuru Toys owner Nick Mowbray.
According to the Herald, the sale price is thought to be around $23 million - more than double the previous highest settled sale price this year, $10.7 million for an unidentified home in Auckland's Takapuna.
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New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty agent Pene Milne was congratulated on social media this weekend for "achieving the highest residential sale in NZ in 2020".
"Hard work, experience and patience pay off," wrote the agency's general manager on LinkedIn.
New homeowners: Former All Black Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray. Photo / Supplied
Milne, who joined the agency in 2015, would not disclose the details of the sale or the price but told OneRoof: "You are always delighted to achieve sales of this scale, they are not a common event."
A sale price of around $23 million would put it well above last year's highest settled sale - $15.5 million, for 516 Ladies Mile, in Lake Hayes, Queenstown - and within spitting distance of 2018's top price - $27.5 million, for 15 Cremorne Street, in Auckland’s Herne Bay.
The seven-bedroom Paritai Drive house that holds the record of New Zealand’s highest sale. Photo / Supplied
However, it well short of the all-time record: the Paritai Drive mansion built by controversial financier Mark Hotchin, which overlooks Auckland's Waitemata Harbour and sold in 2013 for $39 million.
Ollie Wall, of Wall Real Estate, which sold the Hotchin house, told OneRoof last week that he believes the $39 million record will be broken, adding that his the agency is on the cusp of some ultra-high value sales.
Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whitely stayed in Auckland in 2016. Photo / Getty Images
“I’m sure we’re not the only ones. This time there is a different driver and that is that New Zealand is looking even more attractive than ever post-Covid,” he says.
“A large percentage of New Zealand’s most successful people live offshore and right now they are all planning on coming home and spending as much time in NZ as possible in the future.”
Milne has several other high-end listings that have attracted international attention. One, 20 Rawene Avenue, in Westmere, Auckland, was rented by British action star Jason Statham and his partner Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in 2016 while he filming a blockbuster shark pic, The Meg, in New Zealand.
That house is on the market for sale by negotiation.
While $23 million is a huge sum to most, it seems like loose change compared to top sale prices in London's housing market.
The Guardian reported this weekend that developers have put a £185 million ($365.88 million) on a huge mansion near Regent's Park. That would make it the UK second most expensive home, the first being a 45-room house near Hyde Park, which sold to a Chinese property tycoon at the start of the year for £200 million.
