Multi-million-dollar properties in Auckland’s blue-chip suburbs are still finding their buyers, but top agents say the buyer demand is very property-specific so homes can take a while to sell.
“It’s about the particular property ticking all the boxes for the right buyer. My gut feeling is that the big properties that have been on the market a bit longer, it’s about getting finance out of China,” Bayleys agent Gary Wallace told OneRoof.
“We’re hearing that Asian buyers who live here, often have businesses in China so they still need to get their funds out. It’s been like that since the beginning of the year, China is quite strict and tightening things up.”
Wallace said recently he’s had a couple of $10 million deals where buyer conditions include not just the usual builders’ reports or due diligence, but also clauses about buyers getting their money out to New Zealand – a first for him.
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“So far none have fallen over. We had one deal with the Overseas Investment Office, and they got their money out.”
A Lawrence Sumich-designed four-bedroom house on a 1279sqm site on Victoria Avenue that Wallace had been marketing with Vicki and Andrew Wallace since March this year eventually sold in October for “north of $10m”.
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“There are a lot of these high-end places, and some take a little longer. Often for buyers it comes down to ‘where’s the value?’,” Wallace said.
Wallace said that there was already solid interest in a top property he listed for sale this month around the $10m mark. The five-bedroom restored 1930s Horace Massey house on 2343sqm in 186 Kohimarama Road, Kohimarama, has a CV of $9.3m and is being sold by a tender closing November 22.
Some properties get immediate interest. Wallace said a stylish four-bedroom Tuscan-style property, marketed by Vicki Wallace and Amy Hain, on the water at 120 Lucerne Road, Remuera, is already getting a lot of interest after only days on the market.
A luxury home on Victoria Avenue, in Auckland's Remuera, sold in October for more than $10 million. Photo / Supplied
A house on 186 Kohimarama Road, Kohimarama, is being sold by tender closing November 22. It has a CV of $9.3m. Photo / Supplied
A renovated villa with a striking garden on 304 Jervois Road, Herne Bay, is being sold by tender closing November 30. It has a CV of $12.25m. Photo / Supplied
The property has a CV of $8.8m but will likely fetch around the $9m to $10m price point Wallace estimates. A neighbouring house sold earlier this year in a hush-hush deal for $12m, and is already being renovated and turned into an upmarket short-term rental for overseas tourists and celebrities. That home had a CV of $14.25m.
On one of Remuera’s most desirable streets, Barfoot & Thompson agent James Doole is marketing a meticulously upgraded five-bedroom mansion on 15 Arney Road, in Remuera, which is looking for offers over $14m.
The property is back on the market just two years after it was bought for $13.5m. The owners, who are based in the Waikato, have never lived in the house, but invested a lot of time bringing it up to scratch.
A pair of neighbouring properties on Remuera Road being marketed by Wall Real Estate are a lesson on how the top-end market segments split.
One, at 226 Remuera Road, is an immaculately renovated Arts and Crafts house. It has a CV of $9.8m but is looking for over $20m since it was put on the market at the end of last year after a four-year, $10m renovation.
Its neighbour at 228 Remuera Road just went on the market last month. The five-bedroom 1980s house sits on an over 4000sqm immaculately landscaped section with a swimming pool, tennis court and a second house on the property’s second street entrance. With a CV of $25m, the huge property has potential to subdivide as it is zoned for suburban density and the Walls suspect the sale price could come close to the suburb record of $29m set nearly two years ago.
A renovated house on 228 Remuera Road on over 4000sqm has a CV of $25m. Photo / Supplied
A 1930s house on a country estate in Mellons Bay has been on the market since earlier this year. It has a CV of $13.425m. Photo / Supplied
Across in Herne Bay, high-end buyers have an unusual chance to compare a handful of grand old villas, three of them looking for $10m or more, all for sale at the same time on the same street.
Three of the Victorian villas, almost side-by-side on Jervois Road, are on the market for price by negotiation, with the fourth being sold by tender.
Ollie Wall, of Wall Real Estate, who is marketing numbers 306 and 290 Jervois Road, since August and July respectively, said that although both places were gracious big homes on large sections they appealed to distinct markets.
Number 306 has four bedrooms in a 434sqm floorplan on a 1391sqm section, with a self-contained pool house, pool and spa and a CV Of $8.2m; no.290 has five bedrooms in a 523sqm house on 1396sqm section with a pool, theatre and a CV of $8.5m.
“290 is huge and suits a family with teenagers, downstairs has its own kitchen and living room opening to the pool. It will be the only one likely to go for under $10m.
“306 is similar, but people might want to do a little to it. People with kids left home or even downsizers are looking at this, it’ll be a little over $10m,” Wall said.
Next door, number 304, has just been listed by Ray White agents Jan George and Aaron Haabjoern with a tender closing November 30. The four-bedroom, 575sqm home on a huge 2029sqm section has magazine-worthy gardens with an enormous lawn and swimming pool, and a six-car garage and home theatre are on the ground floor. Records show the property has a CV of $12.25m.
George had earlier told OneRoof that “a tender is a ‘no price marketing’ campaign and we never talk about what we think a property is worth”.
The owners of a restored mansion on 15 Arney Road, Remuera, are looking for over $14m. Photo / Supplied
Over the road, closer to Bayfield School, New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agents Scarlett Wood and Patrick McAteer have been marketing a five-bedroom 531sqm villa at 215 Jervois Road. The house sits on a 951sqm section, has garaging for four cars, and is distinguished by a modern rear addition. There is a ground-floor teenage quarters, a studio apartment above the garage and a flat rear lawn that could house a future pool. The home has a CV of $5.9m.
“They’re quite distinct, and all very different from each other – hence the slightly different price points,” said Wall.
“On this side of town, there is not a lot of Chinese money, as they go for the schools – grammar zone, or next to the prestigious private schools, in the most prestigious streets.”
On the North Shore, on Auckland’s exclusive southern beaches, there are only a handful of coastal properties on the market looking for over $10m.
One of them, a five-bedroom 1990s home on an 845sqm section on 28 Ewen Street, Takapuna, right on the beach, has not been on the market for 15 years, according to the advertisement by the agents marketing the property, Robert and Richard Milne.
They said the Sumich Architects-designed place, which has had a substantial external renovation, is a “very rare find” for this location.
The house is next door to a three-bedroom 15-year-old house on a 931sqm site that sold earlier this year for $10.1m. It was the first time in 90 years the property had been on the open market.
“We haven’t had a property of this calibre for some time,” Robert Milne told OneRoof. The over 700sqm house on 845sqm of land has a CV of $15.5m.
Talking about the market in general, Milne added that this spring and summer there had been interest from expat New Zealanders from the USA and China thinking about returning home and looking for waterfront properties.
After spending $20m on their renovation, the owners of 92 Paritai Drive are expecting $30m. Photo / Supplied
“There’s definitely a list of people with very specific requirements, they’re just wanting waterfront. They’re looking for good quality, for solid substantial homes.
“There is a mixture of what they’re looking for, but first it’s a waterfront location, and then it’s case by case,” Milne said.
“There’s just a lack of waterfront property, it’s always quite tightly held.”
In Auckland’s eastern-most beaches, a waterfront property with an historic house and subdivision potential on 215 Bleakhouse Road, Mellons Bay, has been on the market since June. The 642sqm, six-bedroom main house has several auxiliary buildings and sits on a 1.18-hectare estate. It has a CV of $13.425m.
Some distinctive high-priced houses have yet to find buyers.
Two properties on Auckland’s millionaire-row Paritai Drive, where the city’s record price of $38.5m still stands, are looking for over $25m.
Michael Boulgaris, who has been marketing number 92 since May, told OneRoof the vendors paid $10m for it at the end of 2016.
“They have spent at least $20m on it, so we’re looking for $30m. This could well be the record-beater for New Zealand this year,” he earlier told OneRoof.
The 900sqm property on a 1434sqm section has a CV of $19.5m.
Still on Paritai Drive, NZ Sotheby’s agent Gavin Pollard is marketing the internationally renowned home of art collectors, the Gibbs house, on the clifftop at number 31. The three-bedroom 918sqm house was a distinctive design when it was built in 1991, and is “an artwork in itself” the agent said. It comes with temperature-controlled storage vaults and some in situ outdoor works.
The distinctive house, which has a CV of $12.75m, has been on-and-off the market for over a year.
Around the corner on 9 Karori Crescent, Orakei, Bayleys agent Sarah Liu has a Versace-style house that, again, has been on the market for over a year and has a CV of $10.4m.
The six-bedroom home, with a movie theatre and garaging for eight cars, has a mini-soccer pitch in addition to the expected pool, and took over three years to build, including columns, gilt detailing and marble retaining walls.
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