If you want to get into an expensive coastal suburb in Sydney you could be looking at paying more than ten times the city’s median house price of A$1.168 million.
But if you want to make the leap into one of Auckland’s prime coastal suburbs, you’re looking at less than three times the city’s average - meaning our prime suburbs are still accessible in a way that Sydney’s are not.
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Experts say one reason Auckland has remained cheaper is our plentiful coastline, compared to Sydney’s which is more confined.
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But they also say if you do want to make the leap our comparatively cheaper prices might not last post-pandemic.
James Wilson, director of valuation for Valocity, OneRoof’s data partner, says Sydney has had an international focus on high-end real estate for a long time.
“Sydney has had a bigger attraction pool for a lot longer and they’ve been an international city of choice, therefore, they have real estate that warrants that.”
A waterfront mansion with views of both the Sydney Opera House and the harbour bridge sold recently for A$95 million (NZ$103 million) making it Australia’s second most expensive residential sale.
The sale dwarfed New Zealand’s record-holder, the Paratai Drive mansion built by controversial former Hanover finance director Mark Hotchin, which sold for $39 million in 2013 and now has a CV of $46 million.
Edgewater, in Sydney's Point Piper, sold for A$95 million. Photo / Supplied
All our prices pale in comparison to those across the ditch. Top properties in Sydney's desirable harbour suburbs regularly sell in the A$30 million range. Australia's most expensive house purchase was for a 1.12ha waterfront estate in Sydney's Point Piper. It was bought by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes in 2018 for a reported A$100 million.
And last year, a deal worth more than A$140 million was struck for the top three floors of the yet-to-be-built Tower One development at Barangaroo South in Sydney.
Other big Sydney deals this year include: a reported A$35 million for a mansion in Billyard Avenue, Elizabeth Bay, that was once the home of actor Russell Crowe; A$32 million for a seven-bedroom home at Lindsay Avenue, in Darling Point, which was originally built by a nightclub magnate in 2006; and A$24.5 million for a house on Sydney’s northern beaches bought off of supermodel Jennifer Hawkins.
By contrast, Auckland’s biggest residential sale this year was for a waterfront home in Westmere formerly owned by Kiwi film director Andrew Adamson. The Herald on Sunday reported that former All Black Ali Williams and Zuru Toys co-founder Anna Mowbray paid $23 million for the house. That’s more than double for the next highest settled sale price of $10.7 million for a home in Takapuna.
The Sydney home once owned by Russell Crowe sold this year for a reported A$35 million. Photo / Supplied
Top prices aside, there are still big differences when you look at what typical waterfront homes go for in both Auckland and Sydney. In Point Piper, a small, harbourside suburb about six kilometres to the east of Sydney’s CBD, the median price is A$12 million, whereas Auckland’s most expensive suburb of Herne Bay has a median value of only $2.592 million - a mere two and a half times Auckland’s overall median house price.
Sydney’s lowest-priced premium harbour suburb is Kirribilli where the median price is A$3.2 million – well above the $1.52 million median value of Mission Bay, Auckland’s most affordable high-end waterfront suburb.
Wilson says Herne Bay, the most expensive clifftop location in Auckland, features large homes which have maintained their land and property size, and there isn’t much land to build on which also maximises the values of existing homes.
The most expensive home sold in New Zealand: 56 Paritai Drive, Auckland, fetched $39 million. Photo / Supplied
And while Auckland has many other beautiful coastal locations, nowhere compares to Herne Bay, he says. “For example, they have beautiful properties in Beachlands (an outer eastern suburb near Maraetai) but the land values don’t command those record-breaking prices that you see in Herne Bay, or even Sydney.”
New Zealand is so spoilt for choice with coastal locations not every coastal suburb has appreciated by the same amount, he says.
That smaller gap between median prices and top sales in coastal neighbourhoods keeps the real estate within reach for some families, especially with the foreign buyer ban currently in place.
But Wilson says it’s possible some clifftop properties will reach Sydney prices, particularly given how well New Zealand has handled the Covid 19 pandemic.
“When the world opens again we will be an extremely attractive destination on a global scale as high net worth individuals come here and buy properties.”
Ross Hawkins, from Ray White in Epsom, says because Kiwis are unable to travel overseas waterfront properties with easy access to launch a boat is a big attraction for some people. “We see the coastal market as being the big growth market in New Zealand, and in Auckland especially, as people are creating their lifestyle focussing on their own backyard,” he says.
Even Australians are eyeing up our shores, he says, because the city has more bays and better value coastal properties.
Pakatoa Island – a fraction of the price of Australia’s biggest real estate sale this year. Photo / Supplied
“When you look at what you get buying a whole island close to Auckland City (Pakatoa Island in the Hauraki Gulf is for sale for $40 million) compared to a $103 million waterfront mansion it makes it look like a very good opportunity.”
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Pene Milne, who sold this year’s most expensive home, says there aren’t many houses of that calibre available. “The vast majority of these beautiful properties are off the radar and people don’t know about them as they are privately held.”
New Zealand’s waterfront real estate is among the best value in the world, she says, which explains the huge interest from overseas buyers who want bang for their buck and who also appreciate the lifestyle here.
“There are very limited options for those people, but Kiwis never lost sight to what New Zealand offers compared to the rest of the world.”
