An apartment in Wellington’s sought-after Clyde Quay sold off-market for $5 million this month, breaking the region’s price record for 2024 by half a million dollars.
Tommy’s agent Ramon Kane, who brokered the deal for the second-floor apartment, told OneRoof the sale price showed the top end of the city’s housing market had weathered the downturn better than other parts of the market.
“I think for these high-end properties, buyers are less restricted by what’s going on in the economy, interest rates and so on. Stock levels in Wellington have stayed relatively low and we’ll see more listings coming on and more buyer activity,” he said.
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Kane told OneRoof he had sold two more apartments in the Clyde Quay development this month, one for $3.2m, the other for just over $3m, and had brokered an off-market deal for an apartment in the next-door Chaffers Dock building for $3.5m.
He said the buyers were Wellington locals, with the apartments attracting interest from both up and down-sizers. “We’d sell maybe five or six in Clyde Quay a year.”
The $5m was for a 249sqm apartment with three double bedrooms, an office/bedroom, and a media room. Other features include a private lift from the car park to the apartment itself, and a view that catches the sun in the morning and looks towards the city in the west.
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While $5m is a record for the Clyde Quay development, Kane hinted the sale price could be eclipsed. “I have other off-market apartments that would get $6m or $7m. It would be hard to get $10m, but some on the upper floors could, although they were few and far between,” he said.
Kane said there was a long list of buyers looking for a berth at Clyde Quay. “It has to fit the bill and be exactly what they want.”
The 76-apartment block was built on top of the old overseas passenger terminal, and, said Kane, was viewed as an “incredibly special” development.
“It was built to an exceptionally high standard by LT McGuiness in 2014 – no expense spared. Something like this won’t be built again,” he said. “Wellingtonians are risk averse, so they want a good quality product.”
Tommy's agent Ramon Kane is selling an apartment at 2D in Clyde Quay for $1.995m. Photo / Supplied
Kane currently has two other two-bedroom properties listed in Clyde Quay, one on the second floor, the other on the first. Both have asking prices of $1.995m and have received offers.
Figures released by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand this week highlight the slowdown in the capital’s housing market, with the median sale price for July down 6.2% year-on-year and almost 30% below market peak in 2021.
House sales for the month are up 48% year-on-year but are still below the long-term average, with REINZ reporting low open-home attendance in the city.
Separate figures from OneRoof show the city’s average property value has tumbled 4.6% in the last six months, with the rate of decline accelerating in the last three months, a sign of further volatility and pressure in the market.
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