Renowned Kiwi art collector Chris Parkin had hoped to get a $6.25 million for his Parisian-style apartment in Wellington's Oriental Bay when he put it up for sale in October last year.
In the end, it sold for almost $1m less, with the three-bedroom pad selling for $5.31m in April this year, OneRoof can reveal.
That’s still $1m more than what Parkin and his wife Kathy paid for it two years ago, but still more than $1m shy of the capital's highest sale price, $6.5m for a Kelburn mansion that has been bulldozed to make way for 11 luxury townhouses.
OneRoof contacted the agent who listed the Oriental Bay apartment, but she was unable to comment on the sale.
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Parkin, the former owner of the QT Museum Hotel in Wellington, had pitched his Oriental Bay apartment as a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
He told the New Zealand Herald last year that the 450sqm, 1920s-built apartment was in a prime location and “absolutely unique”.
“The right buyer will be quite happy to pay that sort of money, I think,” Parkin said, referring to the $6.25m asking price.
Art collector and philanthropist Chris Parkin in 2013. Photo / Supplied
The apartment was bought to house Parkin's art collection. Photo / Supplied
“This has never been on the open market, and these sorts of properties only come up once in someone’s lifetime.
“It is the only apartment I’ve seen – certainly in Wellington – which is very much Parisian in concept, or European if you like.”
“The ceilings are 3.2m-high with lots of plaster work on the ceilings, and the whole apartment is painted white with dark wooden floors. All of the doors in the main part of the apartment are double doors and all 2.8 metres high – sort of like a smaller version of those palaces you get in Europe.”
Parkin and his wife had bought the apartment as a home for their art collection, but they ended up keeping the collection in their former home, Museum Apartments, and the Oriental Bay pad became surplus to requirements.
“So we ended up buying the [Oriental Bay] property as our home for about 11 months, and now we’ve decided that someone else needs it more than we do,” he said last year.
The apartment commands clear views of Wellington harbour. Photo / Supplied
The $5.31m sale price is the second highest for a Wellington property listed on the open market, with a five-bedroom home in Thorndon selling for $6m in February last year after it been listed with an asking price of $7.95m.
It is also the highest sale price for a property in Oriental Bay, with OneRoof records showing the next highest is $4.8m, paid in 2010.
Nationwide, the highest settled sale price for an apartment is $16.5m for a penthouse in Auckland’s Remuera.
