In Auckland's eastern bays, Barfoot & Thompson agent Paul Neshausen says there is a real shortage was of high-end properties.
As the year comes to an end in the blue-chip suburbs of St Heliers, Mission Bay, Kohimarama and Glendowie, Neshausen is optimistic about the outlook for the top end of the market in his patch.
But what would make life easier is a supply of high-spec properties in the $10 million-plus bracket, telling OneRoof that he could sell them tomorrow if had them.
“The buyers at $10m to $12m are returning expats, Chinese New Zealand residents, people who’ve sold their business or about to go public so they have a big chunk of money," he says.
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“It may be easier to find those places in [neighbouring] Remuera, but around the bays there’s a dearth of properties. The challenge for $12m-plus buyers is there’s nowhere for them to go.”
“I’ve got a bright outlook, I’ve got some cool properties coming on and I think we’ll come charging back in the new year. There are vendors who just want to get on with it,” he said, adding that new listings he is launching in February in Glendowie, St Heliers and Mission Bay are looking at $7m to $12m price tags – and will likely be snapped up.
He maintains that developers brave enough to build $10m to $12m spec houses would find a market in his patch. “There’s always been interest. It has to have no weaknesses, in the land, has a pool, everything. But if you’re brave enough and cash-flow gifted, there’s not enough property [like that],” he says.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Paul Neshausen: "There are vendors who just want to get on with it.” Photo / Fiona Goodall
A $12m off-market deal Neshausen closed at the end of last year has just settled, but he has had three more $5m-plus sales this year: a four-bedroom home on Glendowie’s golden mile of Riddell Road, for $5.55m in April, and a four-bedroom Hamptons-style house on Selwyn Avenue, in Mission Bay, which sold in February for $5.33m, and private deal in May for $6.5m for a home in St Heliers.
The top sale in the eastern bays area was the off-market deal of $20m for an immaculately renovated house on Paritai Drive, next door to New Zealand’s most expensive house, the former Hotchin mansion. In Remuera, the $16m paid in June in an off-market sale of a modern concrete architect-designed house on Arney Road topped that suburb’s prices – well short of the record deal of $29m for a mansion on Remuera Road inked in December 2021.
Just five other sales over $10m in Auckland settled so far this year – all in Remuera – with another five closing at over $9m (including one each in Omaha and on Waiheke Island).
Ray White Remuera office kicked off the year with the third-highest price after the $12m sale of a grand Remuera mansion (it settled in May). The office reported it sold 19 properties in the suburb for over $5m, or just under one third of $5m plus sales in the suburb.
Other top sales for the Remuera office include a pair of properties with CVs of $8.9m, one a traditional arts and crafts house on 1993sqm on Remuera Road and the other an award-winning architect-designed house on Lucerne Road that sold after just 10 days on the market. Prices cannot be revealed until the sales settle next year.
In June, a property on Upland Road fetched $9.2m in July, while an Arney Road house went for $8.3m. The company’s Orakei office fetched “over $10m” for another house on Arney Road, although that deal is yet to settle, and $9m under the hammer for a property on Komaru Road, Remuera, which settled in October after a February auction.
The $12m sale price for a heritage mansion on Remuera Road, in Remuera, Auckland, was the suburb's third highest deal this year. Photo / Supplied
A four-bedroom home on Riddell Road, Glendowie, sold for $5.55m in April. Photo / Supplied
And sales kept up through the end of the year.
In auction rooms last week eight bidders fought for a modernised five-bedroom brick house on a 825sqm lot on Burwood Crescent, Remuera. The property, marketed by Ray White Remuera agents Steve and Nila Koerber sold for $6.704m – over $1.1m above its CV.
The week before, a renovated five-bedroom home on Ranui Road sold for $7.2m under the hammer. The double grammar zone house, marketed by UP Real Estate's Peter Cleave and Josh Nixon, had a CV of $5.5m, and included a pool, multiple living spaces, a new kitchen and scullery and garaging for three vehicles.
Steve Koerber told OneRoof that agents and vendors had expected the Burwood Crescent property, on the northern slopes of Remuera, to be popular because it had all the high-spec features buyers are demanding.
“There was a big body of buyers expecting to buy around that $6m price point. This was completely modernised, with nothing to do, a pool, on the nicest street,” he said.
“It’s hard to pick the value and pricing because there are only a couple of opportunities like that, and very few comparable [properties].”
Koerber added that some vendors who had been sitting tight thinking they would not get the prices they want are re-thinking their strategy.
This luxury home on Upland Road, in Remuera, Auckland, sold for $9.2m in July. Photo / Supplied
“But people have to have a real reason to sell, not just to test the market. Some people who have been a bit stuck in this market will flow through into next year,” he said, adding that by February those listings will be on the market to kick off what he expects to be a good start to the new year.
Ray White agent Thomas Farmer, who with colleagues Simon Siddells, Steen Nielsen and Alex Smith, closed four deals of more than $5m in Remuera and another in Kohimarama, says that there was more traction at the top end of the market than in other lower-priced segments.
“That $5m-plus held on longer than the rest of the market, it was stronger for longer although it’s all caught up now,” Farmer says.
“It shows there are plenty of buyers. We’ve already got listings coming on next year for $5m to $8m. Vendors are confident that there is that buyer out there, and they’ve got genuine reasons for selling – downsizing, or buying an apartment or moving out of town. We think the market will just settle in."
