The penthouse apartment of Remuera’s luxury St Marks development has sold for an undisclosed sum “upwards of” $6 million.
Bayleys agent Joe Telford, who has been marketing the generous four-bedroom, 380sqm apartment for nearly two years, said that in a case of Murphy’s Law, there was not only a keen buyer who secured the property, but also a back-up offer from another buyer.
“The buyers were downsizing, but wanted to get something as close as you could to a house. At this size, there isn’t the pain of completely downsizing to a regular apartment.
“With lockdown and a complete lack of stock on the market, I think in the last three months we’d had more interest and enquiry than I’d had in the last two years,” Telford told OneRoof.
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The refit of the two-floor penthouse apartment included a new kitchen with a $100,000 French stove. Photo / Supplied
A change in family circumstances meant the sellers, wealthy American couple Michael Rems and Julie O’Shea, never got to live in their St Marks apartment, which they had bought off-the-plan back in 2016 for around $6m.
Last week, the developer of St Marks, breast surgeon John Harman, sold off the next-door block of land for $23.5 million that had been earmarked for St Marks II. He had intended to turn the 4201sqm parcel of land into another $200m plus development of 69 high-end apartments, but abandoned his plans as a result of last year's Covid outbreak.
He told OneRoof that the buyer - Kiwi developers - planned to start designs for more apartments from scratch.
In February last year the NZ Herald reported that the penthouse owners had also sold their six-bedroom, five-bathroom Glasshouse on Waiheke, which they had bought in June 2015 for $2.89m, after being unable to move to New Zealand within the three years stipulated by the Overseas Investment Act.
“One of the two penthouses had already been sold, so my clients bought the north-facing penthouse and the apartment below,” Telford earlier told OneRoof.
The owners reconfigured the lower floor kitchen and living room into a massive master suite, including a greenhouse terrace. Photo / Supplied
“Their brief to the Peddle Thorp team, who designed the whole programme, was to create luxury living and a guest suite on the upper floor, with private family bedrooms on the floor below.”
The couple didn't stop there. The penthouse already had a deep balcony (there are 50sqm of outdoor space), so they added an outdoor fireplace. The spectacular views circle from Ohinerau (Mt Hobson) to Rangitoto, the Coromandel Ranges and Great Barrier, to the museum, Sky Tower and city.
The apartment’s upper floor was reconfigured for a large luxury kitchen and entertaining rooms, joined to the bedroom floor through a new wide staircase. The kitchen has a butler’s pantry, with its own entrance off the lift lobby so caterers can discreetly come and go for big parties, traditional American-style Shaker cabinets, marble benchtops and a stunning French La Cornue copper cooker, which at the time cost $100,000.
The top price paid for a penthouse is $15.2m in The International, but agents say that would be worth closer to $20m today. Photo / Supplied
On the lower floor, space planned for the kitchen and living room was given over to the new master suite, which included opening to a covered greenhouse balcony, and a huge spa-like bathroom fitted with vintage tub and brass fixtures.
The apartment includes a full laundry room, extra storage and more garage storage with the four carparks.
“This is an exquisite apartment complex and with fine dining, a cafe and concierge service, it really is the international style of luxury living,” said Telford.
“My clients put their hearts into creating modern family accommodation, there really is nothing like this anywhere else in the city. Top-end apartment buyers now want bespoke, and people are prepared to pay for that.”
And top-end penthouse prices can go stratospheric.
The penthouse of The Pacifica in Auckland's downtown is asking $42.8m. Photo / Supplied
NZ Sotheby’s International Realty Pene Milne is marketing the penthouse of The Pacifica in downtown Auckland with an asking price of $42.8m. When it sells, it will break the current house price record, $38.5m set in 2014 for the sprawling mansion off Paritai Drive formerly owned by property developer Mark Hotchin.
Milne earlier told OneRoof that the penthouse’s price per square metre of $34,000 was in line with other luxury residences in Auckland.
Last year CBRE’s national director of residential projects, Gavin Lloyd, closed a sales on lower floors of The Pacifica for “a shade under $7m”, in addition to $16m worth of sales, including two penthouse suites, between March and May’s lockdowns last year.
Buyers paid $9m for the penthouse of The Sentinel in North Shore's Takapuna in December 2019. Photo / Supplied
Fellow NZ Sotheby’s International agent Jason Gaddes currently has the penthouse and sub-penthouse of 51 Albert on Albert Street in the city on the market asking for $13m and $11m. He sold a lower full-floor apartment in the tower during lockdown for over $7m.
Gaddes added that he had sold four mid-floor apartments in The International, the luxury re-build on Princes Street, for between $6m and $7.45m in the last year, including one during lockdown to a European buyer unperturbed by short-term border closures.
The penthouse of The International holds the current penthouse record of $15.2m. But Ray White agent Ross Hawkins said that price paid by former White House aide to Donald Trump, Chris Liddell, four years ago would today be worth closer to $20m.
Three years ago, Hawkins sold the penthouses of The Edition, a boutique new block of 11 apartments in Parnell, for $9.25m and $8.5m off the plan.
“They’ll be finished next year. Today, they would definitely be north of $30,000 per sqm as a new build, you’d easily get over $10m for them,” he said.
Also up there is the sale of the penthouse of Takapuna’s tower block, The Sentinel, which changed hands in December 2019 for $9m.
Bayleys’ Trent Quinton told OneRoof that penthouses in boutique developments in the eastern bays were generally getting around $6m, with one on Eleven Paora, in Orakei, that sold three years ago settling before lockdown for $6.2m.
It had earlier been reported that the penthouse of The Cab development in the former Auckland Council building on Aotea Square in the city was under contract for between $15m and $20m, but the developer did not respond to requests for confirmation today.
