One of the three super-penthouse apartments in New Zealand’s tallest apartment, The Pacifica, has sold this month.
While details of the sale, including the buyer and price, are subject to strict confidentiality clauses, OneRoof can confirm the sale is of the smallest of the three unfinished shell apartments.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Pene Milne, who marketed the penthouse as a “blank canvas”, would not be drawn on the price of the recent sale, which was in conjunction with Barfoot & Thompson agent Annie Xu.
In April this year the developer, Melbourne-based Hengyi Pacific, priced the smallest apartment at $7.89 million.
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They had carved the over-1200sqm $42.8m penthouse super-apartment, later re-priced to $36m, into three smaller apartments in February – a 260sqm single-level three-bedroom, a 630sqm two-level space and a third 300sqm single-level apartment. The larger apartments were asking $9.5m and $19.8m for a raw shell (known as a warm shell) and buyers would then do their own fit-outs and completion.
The first penthouse sale comes after Xu sold a fully fitted-out sub-penthouse apartment on floor 51 for $7.3m in March.
The penthouses are being sold as a warm shell, without fixtures and fittings, but architectural renders show how it might look finished. Photo / Supplied
Xu told OneRoof that the remaining two apartments on floors 53 and 54 have been carved up again, and are now available as three smaller penthouses – one of 340sqm, another of 370sqm and a third of 170sqm, asking for between $5m and $10m, or $30,000 per square metre.
A further apartment on floor 52, also called a penthouse, is asking $6.69m, but Xu said that for that price the two-bedroom, 190sqm apartment is fully completed.
Xu told OneRoof that since marketing of The Pacifica began, she has sold 86 apartments of the 250 in the tower, a total value of $93m. She said 60% of the buyers are local New Zealanders, most of whom have country or beach properties and plan to use The Pacifica as their city base.
“Some of them are saying ‘this is much better than a retirement village’, the facilities in The Pacifica are the very best, with 24-hour concierge and valet parking,” she said.
“There is serious interest in the top floors from the $10m-plus buyers and there are only 11 apartments left in the rest of the building.”
Over $80m of apartments have sold in One Saint Stephens, Parnell, with the penthouses, going to market in October, asking around $15m. Photo / Supplied
Luxury buyers are also snapping up apartments in the city fringe.
The newest luxury development, One Saint Stephens, next to Parnell’s Cathedral, announced it had sold apartments worth $80.2m since it went on the market in early July – $20m alone in August and early September.
“Despite the supposed negative sentiment on the state of the real estate market, we have never been busier and have signed three new deals in the past week alone,” said Martin Cooper, co-developer of One Saint Stephens.
He said the 15 apartments sold fetched between $3m and $10m. The two penthouses, priced from $15m, will be released to the market in October for expressions of interest.
Close to the city, the 30-apartment tower at 51 Albert, on Albert Street, is also nearly half sold, with sales now “north of $50m” said Jason Gaddes, New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty luxury residential and apartment specialist. The penthouse, priced from $11m, is still available.
“The good stuff, high quality in good locations still has plenty of interest,” he said.
Buyers are paying upwards of $5.495m for sub-penthouse apartments in 32 Shelly Beach, Shelly Beach Road, St Marys Bay. Photo / Supplied
“People with money understand value, they understand quality and that hasn’t changed.
“$8m to $10m is not a lot of money any more. It’s amazing what successful people who’ve been in the property market a long time, they can spend $8m to $10m before they’ve sold [their old house].”
Agent Milne said luxury buyers are also picking up apartments in the boutique 10-apartment development of 32 Shelly Beach Road in St Marys Bay.
A sub-penthouse recently sold for $5.495m, she said, while another three-bedroom sub-penthouse is on the market asking $5.295m.
Buyers have forked out over $50m for apartments in 51 Albert, on Albert Street, in the city. Photo / Supplied
32 Shelly Beach developer David Southcombe, of Maidstone Properties, said that the penthouse he sold off-the-plan three years ago for $7.3m is now back on the market, but could not speculate on what the property might fetch now that the building is close to completion.
Depending on council paperwork, the apartments will be ready for occupancy in four to eight weeks time, he said.
“There’s a hiatus in these builds, where you pre-sell apartments before we start, and now, once you’re nearly finished people can see what they’re going to get,” Southcombe said.
“At this top end of the market, people don’t have to go to the bank, they’re selling more expensive homes and simplifying life.”
