‘Unprecedented’ wealth in one little street
Which Kiwi street has the most expensive houses? We recently ran research from Ray White that named Victoria Avenue, in Auckland’s Remuera, as having the highest median street value. A run of big sales elsewhere in the city makes the case for Marine Parade, in Herne Bay, and Ronaki Road, in Mission Bay.
Ray White agent Ross Hawkins believes Karori Crescent is the preferred address of New Zealand’s elite. The 300m-long street off Paritai Drive, in Auckland’s Orakei, boasts stunning harbour views and is home to more than $250 million of real estate.
Hawkins told my colleague Catherine Masters that the rapid sale of a multimillion-dollar house on Karori Crescent last month highlighted the strength of the upper end of the market. The four-bedroom, four-bathroom property sold for more than $7m, well above its $4.45m RV.
Start your property search
Hawkins said Karori Crescent had attracted an “unprecedented” amount of money over the last few years. “A lot is going on. I mean, just about the whole street is being rebuilt. There’s been a huge amount of expenditure.”
The Karori Crescent house that recently sold boasts clear views of Auckland’s harbour. Photo / Supplied
Last month, OneRoof revealed the top floor of the newly completed boutique development 22 Karori had fetched around $17m, with another apartment in the same block selling for just over $10m.
OneRoof understands that one of New Zealand’s high net worth families has spent tens of millions of dollars on a build in the street.
Hawkins said one of the new houses on the street straddled three sites. “It looks like a hotel. It’s amazing. It’s got an indoor and an outdoor pool,” he said.
Discover more:
- 7 Days host Jeremy Corbett and wife Megan sell their forever home for $4.5m
- Mansion on elite street sells for more than $20m - ‘we had people lining up’
- Rich-lister sells his trophy home - but has he broken NZ’s $45.5m house price record?
The agent noted that Karori Crescent’s appeal was its location, sitting out over Okahu Bay. “It’s got pretty much unobstructed views due north straight out the channel. The seaward side houses, which are the highest value ones, have the road behind them, whereas on Paritai Drive you’ve got the road in front of you.”
The view takes in the shipping channel, Rangitoto and North Head and is “spectacular”.
While Paritai Drive also had wonderful views, Karori Crescent had fewer houses as it was a short street. “There are only a few waterfront houses along it, whereas Paritai is quite a long road that wraps right around.”
While homes on the street rarely came onto the open market, Hawkins said he had one at 9 Karori Crescent with a price indication of $12m-plus.
He said he had “active interest” in the five-bedroom home, which comes with a pool and a pool house and garaging for eight cars.
Up for grabs at 9 Karori Crescent, is a lavish home with a price indication of $12m-plus. Photo / Supplied
Hawkins said it was hard to gauge just how wealthy residents were. “Even when they do the Rich List thing, the numbers are all speculative. They’re never accurate because how would you value somebody’s wealth? A lot of those people probably don’t know what they’re worth. It probably changes quite regularly depending on share levels and business confidence, and Donald Trump.”
People who had wealth could build what they wanted without worrying too much about what the property might fetch in the future, he said, hence why building was booming at the top end.
“There’s amazing investment going into multiple houses at Te Arai, at the golf courses and there’s huge money going into Queenstown-Lakes around Millbrook.”
Sometimes the clientele are the same people: “People that have a property in a place like Orakei and Herne Bay have something up on the coast and they have something down in the mountains. They are not afraid to spend the money and do things very, very well, which is great for our architects, it’s great for our building companies.”
New Zealand had a lot of successful business people, but there was also “old” money and that filtered to the next generation, giving them the ability to invest in property for their families.
Hawkins said if the Government opened up to overseas buyers there could be an escalation in top prices, because New Zealand prices were cheap by world standards.
“There’s a lot of people that want to leave the States and come here. There are houses in Sydney that reach $100 million - there’s been quite a few sales at that kind of level. Eventually, we will get there, too.”
When’s the best month to score a bargain?
Buyers may not know it, but April could be the best month to score a property bargain. OneRoof columnist Ed McKnight recently broke down the real estate calendar to see if any point in the year favoured buyers. The common assumption is that buyers do well in winter months. The thinking is that worsening weather will drive down attendance at open homes. That puts sellers on the back foot and allows buyers to drive down prices.
But the numbers actually show house price growth is at its most sluggish in December, January, and April, because of all the public holidays that fall within these months.
April has Good Friday, Easter Monday, and Anzac Day. It’s also when most schools break after the first term. All of this tends to put house-buying on hold. Canny buyers should be taking advantage of next week’s real estate lull, and the fact that there are some 44,000 residential properties for sale.
(Curiously, even with the glut of homes on the market, vendors are still looking to sell, with new listings volumes in the first 15 days of April up 6% on the same period last year.)
A quick scan of the listings on OneRoof shows there are deals to be had. I’ve spied more than a few listings where asking prices dropped or are urging buyers to ignore the RV. One high-end home in Auckland’s Mission Bay has declared its vendor will sell for $1.7m below their home’s rateable value.
Former Cabinet minister’s Northland home for sale
The OneRoof team spotted a stunning deceased estate in Northland this week and found out it belonged to former National Party Cabinet minister Aussie Malcolm.
The five-bedroom property at 21A Dolphin Place, in Tutukaka, Whangārei, was put on the market following Malcom’s death at the age of 83 last September.
OneRoof contacted the agents about the sale, but they declined to comment.
The listing states the house was designed in 1973 by a renowned California architect, and notes it has “great potential”.
Aussie Malcom’s former home in Tutukaka, in Whangarei, Northland, is for sale. Photo / Supplied
The advertising highlights the striking double-height living room and the floor-to-ceiling windows that take in views of the Poor Knights islands, Pinnacles, and Sugar Loaf.
The agents mention a secure concrete bunker with a blast-proof door that could be used as a safe room or just a regular wine cellar. The property also has a second one-bedroom guest house and an extra-large garage, but the agents note that the significant extensions on the home are still awaiting code of compliance approval.
Malcolm was known as a charismatic politician and spent several years in various ministerial posts in Robert Muldoon’s Government. He served as an MP for nine years, after which he took up various causes, including New Zealand’s first America’s Cup challenge. At the time of his death, he was under police investigation over allegations of child sexual abuse. Earlier this year, it was reported that police had reviewed the allegations, which date back to the 1980s, but decided to take no further action.
- 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
