Auckland buyers paid $17.5 million for a luxury home on Waiheke Island over the Christmas holidays, OneRoof can reveal.
The sale price was the third highest for 2022, and eclipsed the property's 2021 CV by almost $10m.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Pene Milne, who brokered the deal for the seven-bedroom home on five hectares on Orapiu Road, in Omaru Bay, said it was a significant sale for the island.
“It shows that local people continue to appreciate what’s on their doorstep,” Milne said, adding she could not elaborate on the buyer except to say it was an Auckland local.
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“It’s a stunningly beautiful home on that special end of the island. This was one of the best properties I’ve ever had the privilege of selling. It was truly beautiful.”
The vendor told OneRoof last year that she had bought the 956sqm house in 2008 for $4.3m during a flying visit from the UK. She had made the decision to buy while en route to the airport.
“We made an offer as we left New Zealand, and by the time we landed in London it was ours,” she said.
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Since the purchase the vendor carried out a top-to-toe reinvention of the property.
The initial plan to update the kitchen and bathrooms turned into a total rebuild when she decided to add an infinity pool.
The 12-month project, designed by award-winning architects Sumich Chaplin Architects, and built by Argon Construction, gave the home seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms – as well as a stand-out floating infinity pool.
The property also boasts a spa, sauna, a helicopter pad and parking for up to 12 guests. as well as the four-car garage.
“The moment I saw the home in the flesh for the first time was incredible," she told OneRoof.
“I remember feeling incredibly nervous as our chopper flew over the Hauraki Gulf towards Waiheke. As we circled over the property and saw the completed project from the air for the first time, it was just surreal. After we stepped inside the home, I remember sitting in absolute silence and shock, just gazing around me, and taking it all in.
“I knew it would be beautiful, but I’d had no idea it was going to be as beautiful as it is.”
Milne, who is also marketing a trio of properties with Lisa Hopewell on the beach at Pikau Bay in nearby Cowes Bay Road with their own jetty and helicopter pad, said that the lesser-known eastern end of the island was coming into its own.
The 2008 rebuild of the house was designed by award-winning architects Sumich Chaplin and built by Argon Construction. Photo / Supplied
The house overlooks Omaru Bay, on Waiheke's south east. Photo / Supplied
The sale price beats the $11.75m paid in March 2022 for a 20-year-old three-bedroom house on nearly two hectares on Dolphin Lane. That property sale on the coastal headland a few minutes east of Mudbrick and Cable Bay vineyards was a private deal between owners, and was well over the property's 2021 CV of $5.4m.
The third highest settled sale for the year on the island was the $9.15m deal at the end of May for a six-bedroom 969sqm house on a 3.46ha property known as The Estate, on Church Bay Road.
The Mediterranean-style homestead between Mudbrick and Cable Bay wineries, with a swimming pool and two luxury visitor studios, was pitched as an extended family compound and had multiple offers, Bayleys agent Mana Tahapehi told OneRoof. After it sold, it featured on an episode of the real estate reality show, Rich Listers.
Another $9m sale on Newton Road, Oneroa, and two $8m-plus sales, including the internationally-renowned Lantern House owned by the founders of Oyster Inn, wrapped up a busy year for high-end sales on the island.
The 2022 price record does not reach that set in December 2021, when the 34-hectare estate on Kauaroa Bay, Waiheke Island, sold to a family for $23.5m. The property was earmarked for a luxury lodge by US billionaire Julian Robertson, owner of Kauri Cliffs, The Farm at Cape Kidnappers and Queenstown’s Matakauri, after the family bought it in 2018 for $19.5m.
- Additional reporting by Erin Reilly
