Architect’s stunner sells for over $12m as Queenstown tightens its grip on the rich

- Queenstown-Lakes’ share of the $5m-plus property market grew from 13% in 2023 to 18%.

- Auckland’s $5m-plus sales fell 14% in 2024, while Queenstown-Lakes jumped 21%.

- Bay of Plenty’s prestige sales rose 20% between 2023 and 2024, indicating regional demand shifts.

ANALYSIS: At the end of last year, prestige real estate agents shared with OneRoof a clutch of big sales in Queenstown-Lakes. New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty managing director Mark Harris said that the agency in Queenstown-Lakes had sold eight properties for more than $10 million – two of which fetched more than $20m each.

OneRoof analysis of settled sales in the year to the end of October 2024 showed that Queenstown-Lakes’ share of New Zealand’s $5m-plus property market had grown from 13% in 2023 to 18%.

Big sales included $12.375m for a five-bedroom luxury home on Queenstown Hill’s Belfast Terrace - almost double its 2021 CV of $7.36m. The property, listed with NZ Sotheby’s agents Matt Finnigan and Russell Reddell, was designed by Mason & Wales Architects and won the New Zealand Registered Master Builder’s House of the Year 2017 Awards.

But it seems that Queenstown’s gain has come at the expense of other parts of the country. Independent analysis of New Zealand’s prestige property market by Caleb Paterson, of Paterson Luxury Real Estate, suggests wealthy buyers’ appetite for luxury homes in Auckland has waned.

Paterson looked at REINZ sales data in 2024 and found that the number of $5m-plus deals nationwide tumbled 55% from 2021, when the market was at its peak and interest rates were still low. In contrast, sales across all price points only fell 19% from 2021.

Paterson said $5m-plus sales in 2024 in Auckland were down 14% year-on-year while $5m-plus sales in Queenstown-Lakes jumped 21% over the same period.

Prestige sales in the Bay of Plenty have also been performing well, jumping 20% between 2023 and 2024. “The figures show a considerable shift in regional demand with Queenstown and Bay of Plenty picking up a share of the very top end of the residential market, potentially at the expense of Auckland,” Paterson said in a media release accompanying his research.

“Based on the current data, at least $415 million worth of homes valued at $5 million or more have been sold in Queenstown over the past six years – and 28% of these were in the last year alone. At least another $180 million have been sold in Bay of Plenty over the same period.

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“If we are seeing signs of an exodus from Auckland or simply a sharp increase in the number of high net worth families populating regional New Zealand from overseas or other parts of the country, a wealth transfer of this level may have repercussions for businesses in all three regions, particularly if it continues on its current trajectory.”

Paterson, who sells high-end properties in Auckland’s lifestyle belt, hasn’t given up on the city, though, and believes the prestige market will pick up in 2025. Indeed, Auckland is still the capital for big sales.

“Across the country, we had an influx of luxury homes that were brought on and then withdrawn a few months later as the market stalled. Many of these homes have re-entered the market over the summer and we have seen steady levels of buyer interest,” he said.

“Looking at our current listings, every single property has had an increase in engagement and viewing over the past month.”

Caleb Paterson thinks Auckland’s prestige market will bounce back. Photo / Supplied

He’s right about the relisting of high-end Auckland properties. OneRoof has noticed more than a few prestige listings that were withdrawn last year have returned to market, some with different agents, some with different price points (one mansion that was aiming for $20m when it first hit the market has brought down its price expectations by some $10m).

Prestige agents in some of the country’s biggest markets have told OneRoof they have noticed more enquiries for their listings, and one, Ross Hawkins, appears to have secured the first $10m-plus sale this year, as reported by OneRoof last week.

While top-end sales are still only a tiny fraction of the overall market, they do attract attention and set the mood, especially when records are broken. Will 2025 get a $30m or $40m sale? There are listings that could certainly command that sort of money but whether the buyers are there may depend on the direction of the economy and changes to the foreign buyer ban.

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