A two-bedroom apartment in one of Auckland’s first luxury apartment towers sold at auction this week for $3.255 million.
The 153sqm apartment on the seventh floor of The Pines in Epsom’s Owens Road is only the second to sell in the 40-apartment block this year, said the Barfoot & Thompson agent marketing the property, Paul Studman.
Earlier this year, a three-bedroom apartment sold for $3.5m, while a larger completely renovated apartment on a lower floor sold for $4.13m a year ago.
“But it’s not about the quantity of customers for The Pines, it’s the quality,” Studman said.
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“There’s a database of people wanting to get into the building, it’s something quite special. It’s 52 years old, but where else do you get seven acres of grounds and all the amenities?
The Pines apartments were built 52 years ago and still command premium prices for their views and seven-acre grounds. Photo / Supplied
“We don’t really talk about price per square metre [like the new apartments] as there’s quite a lot else that comes into play in The Pines.”
Studman confirmed that unlike other apartment towers, the entire property is owned by one company, Pines Apartments Limited, so sales in the building are sales of shares in the company, and the transfer of shares subject to an interview of the buyer by the director.
Barfoot & Thompson auctioneer Murray Smith, who called the auction, told OneRoof this was the first time he was aware of an apartment in the closely-held tower coming to auction, rather than selling by tender or negotiation.
“Why wouldn’t you sell by auction in this market?” he said.
The $21,274 to $21,851 per square metre of recent sales in the original luxury tower do not quite reach Auckland’s top price: $35,110 per sqm asked for the penthouse of the new Pacifica apartment in downtown.
A three-bedroom apartment in Wellington's Oriental Parade is asking for $6.25m. Photo / Supplied
The five bedroom, nine-bathroom apartment, sprawling over 1219sqm on the 53rd floor, is asking for $42.8m (that includes six carparks). Other brand-new luxury apartments around the city and top suburbs reach around $30,000 per sqm now, agents say.
These prices make an apartment just listed on Wellington’s Oriental Parade for $6.25m look like a bargain. The 450sqm apartment in a heritage building, on the street billed by the Bayleys agent marketing the heritage property, Anna Curtis, as “Wellington’s Riviera”, is a mere $13,888 per sqm.
OneRoof records show it sold just over a year ago for $4.31m, but it has never before been on the open market, Curtis said.
In the same auction, Smith and Studman sold a pair of properties on a 994sqm site on Orakei Road, Remuera for $5.56m.
A pair of houses on Remuera's Orakei Road broke Barfoot & Thompson's lockdown online auction record, selling for $5.56m. Photo / Supplied
Smith said the price broke the Barfoot & Thompson company record for online auctions set only last week in an exhausting 81-minute marathon for a mid-century house next to Government House in Epsom.
The pair of double grammar zone houses, one a three-bedroom 1940s house and the other a four-bedroom architect-designed 1990s house, attracted a mix of developers (the site is zoned for suburban density) and families looking to create a multi-generational compound.
Family buyers beat out seven other bidders in a fierce 40-bid auction, Smith said.
“Lockdown and being online is not stopping anyone. The numbers are huge: we’ve sold 616 properties worth $904.5m, a clearance rate of 79%. That’s 4522 registered bidders, over 22,000 bids. And the next four weeks are already well over 600 auctions booked, with more coming in.
“Over 216,000 people have watched the auctions online. Does that make us bigger than Shortland Street?”
