A luxury penthouse apartment in Auckland’s blue-chip Parnell went on the market at the start of this month looking for a record-breaking amount for New Zealand's apartment market.
The listing for the four-bedroom 539sqm apartment on the fifth floor of One Saint Stephens gives top-end buyers a glimpse of the high life they'd be buying into in the development next door to Holy Trinity Cathedral.
The apartment is on the market by way of price by negotiation but was initially listed with a price tag of $22.5 million.
Martin Cooper of Experiences by Coopers, who is developing One Saint Stephens with Mike Sullivan of Countrywide Residences, said that the sale would be one of the final six apartments in the luxury development of 27.
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“The key thing is that [this is] at the moment in a market where everyone said not a lot is selling. We’re definitely bucking a trend,” Cooper said citing more than $100 million in sales or under contract in less than 15 weeks since the project went on the market this winter.
He said the development’s luxury buyers have realised that there aren’t new top-end properties coming to the Auckland market, so moved quickly.
“They’re saying ‘if not now, when?’ How are prices going to come back, they’re not going to halve in Remuera?"
Cooper said that “a large chunk” of buyers lived within walking distance of the project, on the corner of Parnell Road next to the Anglican cathedral. They recognised that to build their own home of the quality and size offered by the company’s apartments would take four or five years, Cooper said, and maybe cost $20,000 per square metre in today’s money.
The apartment block includes showroom garaging designed in collaboration with luxury car dealer the Giltrap Group with the option to be developed as a personal garage, a private dining lounge that will rival the best restaurants, while the penthouse comes with a media room and over 20sqm of walk in closets.
One Saint Stephens developers Martin Cooper of Experiences by Cooper, left, and Mike Sullivan of Countrywide Residences. Photo / Supplied
An artist's impression of the penthouse suite. The developers say local buyers are prepared to pay for big money for top-of-the-line apartments. Photo / Supplied
Sullivan, whose company Clearwater Construction is close to completing the excavation of the two story below-ground carpark, said foundation construction will start in January and the apartments are on schedule for an end of 2024 completion.
Cooper said that while remaining apartments are priced from around $7m, the super-luxury 539sqm penthouse has pushed out to a higher level of luxury than ever seen in New Zealand “right down to the door handles.”
The company earlier made a record $16.5m price for a penthouse in their Remuera development, the Elms, which the buyers then further customised, so stepped up the One Saint Stephens quality from what they’d learned there.
Cooper said: “At this very high end, the market is evolving. People once perceived $10 million to be the pinnacle, but that is quickly becoming $20 million or more.”
There are few penthouse sales which may come close around Auckland.
The apartments at One Saint Stephens, next to Parnell's Anglican cathedral, include garaging for luxury cars and a world-class private dining room. Photo / Supplied
Since the super-penthouse of The Pacifica, on Customs Street, has been carved into three smaller apartments, the largest of 355 sqm is now asking $10.95m for a warm shell. The smallest penthouse sold in September for a price believed to be around its $7.89m asking price.
Further along Customs Street East, at New Zealand’s tallest tower, The Seascape, agents could not comment on whether the two-story super-penthouse, on the market with an asking price of $23.3m, has found a buyer yet.
But New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty managing director for projects, Gavin Lloyd, told OneRoof there has been buyer interest for the 311sqm property which has a winter garden of 49sqm. The nine other Seascape penthouses are asking between $9.14 million and $16.86m.
The sale could be rivalled if the $15m penthouse and $12.5m sub-penthouse of 51 Albert, on Albert Street in the city, are combined into one super-apartment. Photo / Supplied
In Albert Street, at 51 Albert, the luxury hotel and apartment complex being developed by Melbourne-based developers Ninety-Four Feet, Lloyd said there is interest from buyers to join up the 335sqm penthouse on level 41, asking $15m, with the level 40 sub-penthouse, asking $12.5m to create a super-penthouse that could be worth over $27m.
“So that could be the highest price in the city. We’ve definitely had more international interest in the last little while, some out of Europe, some out of Singapore and Hong Kong,” Lloyd said.
“These wealthy international people are saying ‘now’s the time to strike, when others are looking the other way’, and they’re looking not just at New Zealand but at all parts of the world.”
