A luxury Waiheke Island estate that has been on the market for six years failed to sell at auction today.
Owner David Parkinson hosted the auction for Te Rere Cove on Church Bay Rd on site and had invited top agents from Auckland to bring buyers in a bid to finally secure a sale.
Ray White sales agent Matthew Smith, who was one of the agents listing the property, said: "There was a bid of $15 million, after which there was a pause in proceedings for discussions between the bidder and the vendor.
"The bidder then made an improved offer of $18.5 million after which the property passed in. The estate is now back on the market and the owner is inviting interested parties to make an offer."
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Parkinson said last month that he had the property valued by Andrew Buckley of Seagars "and it came out at $24 million, conservatively".
The house was designed in an early New Zealand colonial style by Waiheke architectural designer Bryce Ardern.
The interior features French oak, limestone sea shell tiles and granite with decor styled by interior designer Anna Desbonnets.
The ground floor has family living, designer kitchen, art gallery, alfresco dining area, conservatory, indoor heated swimming pool,home theatre and air conditioning.
Upstairs in the main house is a master bedroom suite with balcony, two en suites and dressing rooms, kitchenette and a concealed library/TV snug.
Parkinson first put Te Rere Cove to market six years ago, not long after it was built, and has listed it with many agents over the years.
He said last month that he had found the amount of time it was taking to sell the property hard "but not everyone has got $20 million in the pocket".
The New Zealand Herald reported last month that an earlier sale of Te Rere Cove to an overseas buyer fell through because the buyer was became frustrated with the cost associated with buying the home and had withdrawn their Overseas Investment Office application.
Figures supplied by REINZ showed there were 240 dwelling sales on Waiheke over the past 12 months, six of them private.
Of the rest, 19 were sold by auction, five by tender, 13 by sale method that was unidentified and the rest were by private treaty.
The median sale price for private treaty sales was $877,250, while the median price for the auction sales was $1,046,000. The median price for those sold by tender was $2,400,000.
