Housing market’s what-if moments
Can you remember what you were up to in the Year 2000? I know what I was doing, and it wasn’t buying baches in Omaha for around $300,000 or villas in Herne Bay for just half a million dollars. If I had, I wouldn’t be typing this right now. I’d be mortgage-free and sitting on homes worth more than four times the purchase price.
OneRoof’s latest research tracking house price changes over the last 25 years will no doubt trigger a lot of similar “what-if” moments. It also highlights how much harder buying a house can be, even though interest rates are nowhere near the highs mortgage-holders faced in 2000.
While sifting through the New Zealand Herald archives as part of the research, I came across one curiosity, which wasn’t part of the main features, but is interesting enough to cover here. Let’s dive in:
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Twenty-five years ago, the New Zealand Herald ran a story about a mansion on Clifton Road, in Auckland’s Takapuna, which was looking for more than $8 million. The house, which must have seemed grand at the time, would feel pretty dated in today’s market – green windows and green balcony railings anyone? The waterfront house was one of several luxury properties in the city eyeing foreign cash, with the Herald article quoting agents as saying that the average wealthy buyer in New Zealand was an executive “looking at homes in the $2.5 million to $4.5 million range”.
Hugh and Carmel Fisher bought Chateau de La Sur Mer in 2016 for $22m. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
According to OneRoof records, the owner of Clifton Road didn’t get their desired $8m-plus, settling for “just” $7.1m in April 2001. The records show another two title transfers in the 2000s, one in 2003 for $7.9m and another in 2006 for $10m. The dated house was bowled and replaced by an extremely grandiose home, dubbed Chateau de La Sur Mer. That mansion – and it truly deserves to be called a mansion – is 1730sqm in size and boasts five bedrooms and nine bathrooms. After construction finished, the multi-millionaire owners Cameron and Tracey Gregory put the house on the market for sale in 2015, and promptly made headlines with their asking price of $35m. They had to settle for less when the house eventually sold in 2016 to Fisher Fund Management founders Carmel and Hugh Fisher for $22m.
The home is still with the Fishers and has a 2021 CV of $28.1m – close to four times the 2001 sale price.
Who was splashing the cash in the 2000s?
My colleague Catherine Smith talked to Bayleys agent David Rainbow, who has concluded some of New Zealand’s biggest property deals of the past 25 years and is the first Kiwi agent to rack up a billion dollars in property sales.
This is what he had to say about the top end of Auckland’s housing market in the 1990s and 2000s: “Asians, mainly mainland Chinese, were buying lots of expensive houses, often from Chinese vendors with residency and business interests in New Zealand.
“In those days, clifftop homes sold for a premium.
“Looking at a newsletter I sent out in 1996, the top prices were $1.9m, $1.34m and $2.5m. By comparison, an entry-level home in the eastern suburbs was around $365,000. Today those homes have CVs of $2.875m.
“A place on Arney Road I sold in 1994 for $2.468m fetched $8.1m some 10 years later and sold for $22m in 2022, after a complete renovation.
Bayleys agent David Rainbow: “We need to open the doors to overseas people.” Photo / Fiona Goodall
“The difference now is the quality of these renovations. That drives the price up. Some of these renovated homes are essentially new builds. In the past, they would have changed hands without much more than a lick of paint and fresh wallpaper.
“I’ve just dug out a story from 2003, and we were still talking about immigrants who were coming in. Then, they were overseas corporate escapees sailing into New Zealand, genuine highflyers.
“We need to open the doors to overseas people. A lot of the people I’ve dealt with who have bought here, they’ve all spent money. If you buy a house, that’s only part of the expenditure – you buy a house, you buy a car, you send your children to school. People make money, therefore they spend money. No one’s going to come in and spend $10m on a house without spending money elsewhere.”
Deceased estates and $1m dumps
OneRoof currently has two vintage Auckland cottages for sale that have serious “Up” vibes. The two properties, one in Ponsonby and the other just down the road from me in Onehunga, are hemmed in on all sides by modern developments. Their respective owners also held out against the changes around them before their passing.
Their families had interesting stories to share. Both owners were interesting characters, and their lives say a lot about Auckland over the last 100 years or so. The Onehunga property, listed with Barfoot & Thompson agent Wendy Sadd, will be an interesting sale. Will Lendlease, the owner of the Dress Smart shopping mall that looms over the cottage, scoop it up? The Ponsonby property, listed with Barfoot & Thompson agent Alexander Kramarenko is also interesting – it’s a small site sandwiched between two multi-storey blocks.
A two-bedroom green villa for sale at 118 Church Street, in Onehunga, Auckland, will be recognisable to Dress Smart shoppers. Photo / Supplied
45 Brown Street, in Auckland’s Ponsonby, is brimming with potential, according to the listing on OneRoof. Photo / Supplied
Also of note in my suburb is the $1.156m sale of a rundown villa by Ray White’s Martin Honey. The property hit the market at the end of last year and required some major hacking to show to the public. Before it was listed, it appeared as if the property had been eaten alive by a monstrous hedge. Onehunga residents will also note the hedge had gobbled up a rusted mini, the remains of which had to be removed.
A rundown villa on Arthur Street, in Onehunga, recently sold for $1.156m. Photo / OneRoof
Before the property was listed, it was home to a monstrous hedge, which had a habit of eating cars. Photo / Google Street View
An Onehunga dump getting more than $1m is surprising. Onehunga, as much I’d like it to be, isn’t Ponsonby but the property’s hillside location and view of Manukau harbour brought out the buyers and serious money. If only I could have bought it in the Year 2000.
- Owen Vaughan is editor of OneRoof.co.nz. You can contact him with any property tips or story ideas at owen.vaughan@nzme.co.nz
