Even buyers with $10m-plus in their pockets are struggling to secure a home in New Zealand's most expensive suburb.
A waterfront home recently listed for sale in Auckland’s Herne Bay attracted a surprising amount of interest from high-net worth property hunters, with the listing agents reporting a phenomenal level of competition at the top end of the market.
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Chris Batchelor, Barfoot and Thompson's Ponsonby branch manager, told OneRoof that he had been shocked by the level of competition for the home, which was marketed by his agent Carl Madsen and sold this month.
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“We were surprised at the number of buyers with over $10 million looking in this market,” he said. “The amount of competition above $10 million is phenomenal at the moment.”
Batchelor said neither nor Madsen could disclose the sale price for house – or the address due to privacy reasons – but he stated it was “one of the most significant” for Herne Bay.
Herne Bay has seen a run of big sales post-Covid. In September, a huge waterfront property at 27 Marine Parade sold for $23.5 million in an off-market deal brokered by Ollie and Graham Wall of Wall Real Estate.
An in November, a landmark heritage property in near original condition at 15 Hamilton Road sold for $8 million in a deal brokered by Ray White Ponsonby agents Jan George and Aaron Haabjoern.
22 O'Neills Avenue, in Takapuna, Auckland, is one of only a handful of waterfront properties for sale close to Auckland city. Photo / Supplied
And a waterfront property in neighbouring Westmere sold for $24 million in May 2020 to former All Black Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray, the rich-lister co-founder of Zuru Toys.
Ollie Wall is also marketing a grand waterfront home in the Takapuna, in Auckland’s North Shore. The property at 22 O’Neills Avenue has a council valuation of $7.3 million, and last changed hands for $4.4 million in 2004 but has since been extensively refurbished.
Wall told OneRoof that given the scarcity of absolute waterfront property in Auckland a sale price “double the CV would not surprise us at all”.
“Unlike Sydney, Auckland has very little waterfront property and that’s never going to change. What will continue to grow, however, is the demand for it,” he said.
“We have people with $10 million plus budgets who say ‘as soon as anything comes up on Takapuna waterfront, let us know.’ Like anything else, that scarcity usually leads to a higher value.”
He added: “Everyone in the world would agree Auckland’s the best place in the world to live right now, and the best place in Auckland to live is on the water.”
Only a handful of other absolute waterfront properties are currently on the market in Auckland. A three-property estate on the cliff-top on the eastern end of Takapuna beach at 33-35 Clifton Road could well top this year’s sales price.
The 4300sqm property, which has a 2017 CV of $18.58 million, is being jointly marketed by Bayleys agent Victoria Bidwell and Aaron Reid of New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty. It is being billed as a development option to either retain as a single estate, or build an “enclave of seaside homes”.
Bidwell said: “These places are steps to the water, north facing towards the city and the city lights, rather than facing east to Rangitoto or on the lake. Anywhere else in the world with these views would be worth a fortune.
“These waterfront places haven’t realised their value yet. All it will take is a few big spectacular builds and that will change.”
