When the rich and famous buy a super yacht, their rule of thumb is to spend around ten percent of the purchase price each year to maintain it.
Does the same rule apply to maintaining a high-class property?
OneRoof asked some of Auckland's top real estate agents how much money their wealthier clients expect to spend per year to service their $10 million-plus home.
Estimates varied from a relatively modest $20,000 a year to more than $300,000.
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Luxury real estate agent Michael Boulgaris, who famously restored one of Auckland’s few1920s Hollywood-style Spanish Mission estates in Remuera, all 500 antique-filled square metres of it, plumps for an estimate on the high side.
He puts the average price tag for an Auckland mansion maintenance at around $300,000 a year.
“That is a fair figure but it’s huge. It’s more than six people’s salary. It is hard to believe, isn't it?” he says.
There is always something that needs work done on a large residence, he says, adding the figure includes electricity and other utilities, housekeeping, gardening, pool maintenance, security maintenance and more.
Auckland agent Michael Boulgaris: “If you do it properly, your house will stay pristine.” Photo / Ted Baghurst
Boulgaris says gardening is a big one as it includes not just general maintenance, hedge trimming - a specialist task not left to just any gardener – and lawn mowing, but also monthly fertiliser, watering and replanting.
“People that take pride in their lawns have monthly lawn care, and there’s re-planting and re-sowing the garden.”
The owners will have a scheduled yearly up-keep programme, which might include house washing at least once or twice a year and rooms being painted every month.
Just like a car would get regular warranty of fitness and check-ups from the mechanic, the house needs regular work done so its value doesn’t decrease, Boulgaris says.
“Some people unfortunately don’t do it with houses. But many people do, every month they just keep painting a new room, maintaining service areas.
“If you do it properly, your house will stay pristine,” he adds.
Then add in the cost of maintaining the toys. If the residence has a pool it will need regular cleaning and chlorinating, plus the heating system and pool pump need to be serviced every half a year.
Maintaining the pristine garden requires an army of skilled workers. Photo / Getty Images
Boulgaris says other entertainment areas such as a tennis court or a golf course will also require extra grooming though out the year.
“Then if it was in America or the UK, you’d have a full-time chauffeur. Or a dog groomer sounds like fun,”
At the other end of the scale, Wall Real Estate agent Ollie Wall estimates the cost of maintaining a mansion is about $20,000 a year, excluding utility bills and rates.
Normally, a $10million plus house comes with a list of maintenance contacts that the real estate agent and vendor put together to share with the new owner to help keep their new property immaculate.
It even includes contact details for the builders, who built the property or know it well enough to sort out potential issues seamlessly, Wall says.
“These giant houses they are living and breathing things and you’re just a part of it,” he says.
People who buy properties attached to vineyards or olive plantations, often arrange a company to run the business in exchange for bottles of their product. Such service is common in the Waiheke Island or Central Otago.
“They do all the work for you, take care of the land, make some wine and drop off a few cases of it at the end of each year,” Wall says. Beats doing the work themselves.
Bayleys agent David Rainbow, who has been selling top-end Remuera real estate for over 30 years, estimates up-keep of large houses somewhere in the middle range.
He says spending $100,000 a year - about $2000 a week - on maintenance is a reasonable figure.
A few hundreds of dollars a week can be spend on cleaners, another couple of hundred on gardening and tree grooming, and a few more hundred on pool maintenance weekly, he says.
“It depends on how house proud you are. If you want cleaners to iron your clothes, mown your lawns, have your car washed every day, then you can pay someone $60,0000 to be there every day of the week,” Rainbow says.
The figure could be higher or lower depending on how much the luxury property owners are willing to do themselves and the kind of site they have.
An old house has more wear and tear and will require more work, a big section with trees will also require clipping of all that immaculate hedging on top of regular mowing and gardening.
Sotheby's International Realty agent Pene Milne, who sold the most expensive home this year, a modern architect-designed home in Westmere for $23m, points out that even if the houses cost the same, maintenance cost for luxury properties vary considerably.
“It could be a $10 million property on a small land parcel that is concrete and just needs a wash. Or it’s a massive 600sqm villa on three quarters of an acre in Remuera with high maintenance garden, trees and pool on site.”
She says that people who buy luxury properties are normally moving from another luxury property and so they don’t need to be told how to maintain it.
Milne says once she had an owner ask for network contacts the previous owner has used.
“Buyers have a feel for it and they always have a pool of their own people they need to contact,” she says.
