The post-Covid house price boom in New Zealand has delivered two record-breaking sales.
The top price achieved in the last 12 months was for an Auckland luxury home once owned by Hollywood director Andrew Adamson.
The waterfront property in Westmere offers stunning views of the harbour and was bought by former All Black Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray, the rich-lister co-founder of Zuru Toys, for $24 million in May 2020.
Less than five-minute’s drive away in neighbouring Herne Bay is a house that came very close to taking the title.
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OneRoof can now report that a huge waterfront property at 27 Marine Parade sold last year for $23.5 million, making it 2020’s second most expensive piece of residential real estate.
The sale of the extensively modernised concrete villa was brokered off-market by Ollie and Graham Wall of Wall Real Estate in September 2020, but has yet to settle. As is typical in this segment of the market, the agents cannot comment on the sale.
The owners of 27 Marine Parade purchased the property in 2002 for $5.25 million and then undertook an extensive refurbishment. The nearly 660sqm of living spreads over multiple floors, with landscaping and a swimming pool on the 2688sqm pohutukawa-framed site.
Record-holders: Anna Mowbray and ex-All Black Ali Williams. Photo / Herald on Sunday
The $23.5 million sale price is almost triple that of Herne Bay’s previous record-holder for 2020, $8 million for a landmark heritage property in near original condition at 15 Hamilton Road.
But it is still $4 million less than the suburb’s all-time top sale price: $27.5 million for 15 Cremorne Street in 2018. That property was bought by developers Paula and Simon Herbert, who sold their Remuera Road mansion for $25.5 million in a deal that was also brokered by the Walls.
New Zealand’s top sale price - $39 million in 2013 for the mansion built by controversial financier Mark Hotchin in Paritai Drive, in Auckland’s Orakei.
That deal was also brokered by the Walls. The head of the agency, Graham Wall, told OneRoof that these Auckland waterfront prices are bargains on the world market.
“If these were in Sydney, they’d go for $40 million. When people balk at $20 million, we often make that comparison. But I’d rather live here.”
