A property on an exclusive estate in Auckland’s Waiheke Island has sold for $10.25 million, the second highest price ever paid for a home on the island.
Waiheke Homes co-owner Tobias Roebuck-Ward, who brokered the deal on the striking modern house on 1.5 hectares on Alan Murray Lane, says the property was shown to a limited group of qualified buyers.
“We had three qualified buyers who we work with, we knew they had budgets of $8m to $10m, and since then we’ve had calls from two more who wanted to buy,” he said of the property, which has a council valuation of $6m and last sold six years ago for $7m.
“We’d been working with the buyers from Auckland for a couple of months, we knew what they wanted and figured this would be a perfect fit.”
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Roebuck-Ward said that with fewer than 50 listings on Waiheke at the moment, “there’s a lot of scrambling at every level of the market – whether you’ve got $1m or $10m”.
Five buyers with budgets of $8m to $10m were interested in the property. Photo / Supplied
“After selling this property, we still have four people, all from the city, looking for property in that $8m-$10m price range,” he said.
“We don’t advertise property, we advertise buyers – ‘couple with $6m want waterfront property’ - and work with sellers on and off the market. It’s a matchmaking service.”
Waiheke Island's record sale for a home was the estate at Church Bay Road, Te Rere Cove, which sold for 'way more' than $10m. Photo / Dean Purcell, NZ Herald
The island record price still stands for an estate at 205 and 205a Church Bay Road at Te Rere Cove near Oneroa that sold in June 2019.
Graham and Ollie Wall of Ponsonby's Graham Wall Real Estate sold the vineyard and two-level white, colonial-style home in two deals, after the owners had tried unsuccessfully for seven years to sell it, valuing the total property and vineyard at $24 million.
“After years of coming and going, there's finally been a successful sale of the famous Te Rere Cove,” Wall said at the time of the sale.
Another lodge in the same estate at Alan Murray Lane, Matiatia sold last year for $9.3m. Photo / Supplied
He told OneRoof that while he could not disclose the sum for the house it was “way more than $10m.” Records show the 5ha vineyard block sold for $3.3m, but the price of the main property is not revealed.
This month’s sale price for the 550sqm four-bedroom modern home in the exclusive gated Matiatia Estate, above the ferry terminal, beats the earlier $9.3m record set in the same estate in late 2019. A Hamptons-style property in the same lane had been fully renovated – including adding a helicopter pad – by property developer Ted Manson, who had bought it from rugby star and media personality Marc Ellis for $8.2m in 2016.
And in August last year, NZ Sotheby's International Realty announced the sale of Delamore Lodge, a luxury clifftop home that curves around the slopes above Owhanake Bay, for an undisclosed sale price, "close" to the asking price of $10 million plus GST.
Celebrity hangout Delamore Lodge sold last year for 'close' to the $10m-plus asking price. Photo / Supplied
The lodge, a popular spot for A-list celebrities, including Oscar-winner Hilary Swank and the late Jonah Lomu, had been on and off the market for almost a decade. The buyers, a Hong Kong family resident in New Zealand, have installed a hotel management company to run the lodge.
Roebuck-Ward said the market had completely changed in the last six weeks.
“When we list a property now, you don’t get the ‘what’s the price range’ calls, because people know we don’t have one. Then 25 people turning up at open homes or auctions and are just going for it.”
Seven buyers chased a waterfront block of land with beach access that sold for $2.95m. Photo / Supplied
Waterfront land to build on is also in high demand. Last week Roebuck-Ward also sold a 5.58 hectare lifestyle section on Te Whau Drive, in another exclusive no-exit peninsula, for $2.95m. He said that the waterfront property next to bush reserve and with walking access to two beaches had seven tenders and sold for asking price.
“The buyers are going to enjoy it as it is and eventually build something spectacular.
“Aucklanders are coming over here sometimes for a weekender, or a place they can live in for three months of the year in summer, or work some days in the city, some days from home. We've got heaps of buyers but no stock to show them.”
