Andrew McIntosh didn’t set out to be a developer. The Auckland-born entrepreneur was looking for accommodation in Queenstown but he couldn’t find anything interesting so he decided to build something himself.
His company, B Group, is busy finishing Waimarino Lodge, a multi-million-dollar collection of luxury villas at Bob’s Cove, 12 minutes' drive from downtown Queenstown.
“When I lived in Queenstown in the 1990s people from visiting from overseas would go, ‘Wow, this place is incredible, isn't it?’, and I’d would always say, ‘Yeah, nah, it’s good’, because that’s what we Kiwis do; we take what we have here for granted,” McIntosh says.
“I now live in Australia and I look at Queenstown with overseas eyes.”
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Waimarino Lodge, McIntosh says, is different. “I don’t think Queenstown needs more schist stone fireplaces. Blanket Bay and Matakauri Lodge are stunning, but their décor is probably more targeted at my parents than me. I personally prefer a very modern, minimal aesthetic and I couldn’t find it. That was really the catalyst for building Waimarino.”
The development offers 24 high-end villas accompanied by two ultimate "owner residences", a yoga studio, day spa, gourmet restaurant, distillery and more.
“We end up selling everything within a couple of weeks over Instagram. We could have sold the top-end owner residences 10 times over,” McIntosh says.
“It’s clear there is real demand for premium homes in New Zealand. The cheapest villa was $1.2m and the most expensive property was $12.8m. I realise now we sold too cheap. But that’s not a bad problem to have.”
McIntosh, whose next big development in New Zealand will be Kitea, a hotel in Wanaka, laments the cost of building here compared to Australia. “I'd be the first one to say that the housing market has been very generous to us in New Zealand. But the build costs are just obscene. What's costing us $12,000 to $14,000 a square metre to build in New Zealand is probably 30 to 40% cheaper in Australia.”
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The rewards from a luxury development are tempting. Last month, OneRoof revealed that a penthouse apartment in one of Auckland's newest glamour blocks sold for $17 million – before the development was officially on the market.
Victoria Lane, a boutique development near the corner of Remuera Road and Victoria Avenue, in Remuera, is the brainchild of veteran developer Richard Kroon, who is known for the Pinnacle apartment block in Remuera.
He says the development, which boasts a top-of-the-line design by Leuschke Group Architects and interiors by James Doole, was attracting locals playing “musical chairs”.
A smaller 175sqm apartment on the same floor has sold for $5.7m, while a third 264sqm penthouse has an asking price of $11.35m.
An artist impression of the Victoria Lane apartment development in Remuera, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
“A lot of our buyers are people looking for a replacement for the large family home. They want to stay in the area and they want something big. Our average apartment size is 250sqm,” Kroon says.
OneRoof understands the penthouse of another high-end development in the same neighbourhood sold for a similar price last year.
The 529sqm top floor of Elm Remuera, on Orakei Road, was combined into a single home for a price believed to be close to $30,000 per sqm, or nearly $16m. OneRoof records show the penthouse now has a CV of $19m.
Elm Remuera is being developed by Martin Cooper and Mike Sullivan, who are also spearheading the luxury One Saint Stephens development next to Holy Trinity Cathedral in neighbouring Parnell.
Cooper says One Saint Stephens will be his best development yet. Construction work is yet to start but several of the apartments have already sold off the plan. “Over the last five to seven years we have noticed that people want bigger-sized apartments and more luxurious developments,” Cooper says.
One Saint Stephens developer Martin Cooper: “You've got to really differentiate yourself and provide the level of care that a lot of these people are used to when they're buying other high-end luxury goods." Photo / New Zealand Herald
“We’ve spent a lot of time analysing how people might live in these apartments, and we talk to residents about what they like about their apartment and about the development."
That process led, for example, to full-sized walk-in laundries becoming part of the design at One Saint Stephens.
Customer service is key, says Cooper. “You've got to really differentiate yourself and provide the level of care that a lot of these people are used to when they're buying other high-end luxury goods."
Understanding buyers
Rich-lister Kurt Gibbons is no stranger to luxury living. Three-quarters of his Gibbons Co developments have been aimed at the upper end of the market. "In most of our townhouses we use things like oak staircases, glass balustrades, oak flooring, granite bench tops, [and] high studs,” he says.
Asked what he gets out of these types of projects personally, as opposed to financially, he says doing these developments allows people to live in locations they might not have been able to afford if they were buying a standalone home.
Selling below valuation has won fans. “If we have a valuation of $1.6m, we’re not going to try and get $1.6m for it. We price it slightly below. Because of that we get a huge number of referrals ... and a good name.”
Next up for Gibbons is a high-end build-to-let development in Auckland. “It's still waiting for resource to come through. We’ve partnered with a listed fund who will acquire the entire asset and manage it," he says.
An artist impression of One Saint Stephens, which will sit next to Auckland Cathedral, in Parnell. Photo / Supplied
Gibbons also has plans for an apartment building in Auckland’s medical mile, next door to the luxury St Marks development, in Remuera.
Suzie Wigglesworth, national director of project for Bayleys Real Estate, is seeing more and more luxury apartment developments from Kiwi developers around Auckland CBD, as well as further out in the suburbs. “A really good example of that would be the boutique apartments Winton are doing in Hobsonville Point.”
Wigglesworth says Winton work with one of the country’s top designers, Stewart Harris from Macintosh Harris, which shows they understand their target market.
“Successful developers understand, for example, that someone who wants to spend $10 million on an apartment has a lot of artwork that they need to put on the walls, and therefore they provide spaces in which people can achieve that. The best luxury developments are almost always waterfront or with water views, and designed by well-known architectural firms and top designers.”
- Additional reporting by Catherine Smith
