The $30 million-plus sale of an 18,000ha alpine station on the shores of Queenstown’s Lake Wakatipu is likely to be followed this spring by more eight-figure deals as rich-listers jet into the ski town to build their dream compounds.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Russell Reddell, who brokered the recent deal for Halfway Bay Station with colleague Matt Finnigan, told OneRoof that another property on their books, on Remarkables Ski-field Access Road, is likely to fetch a more modest $14m.
The property, billed as a “one-off, a timeless masterpiece” and “the ultimate alpine retreat”, ticks all the boxes that high-end buyers are looking for: a 40ha gated estate on a private road shared with only two other homes, with jaw-dropping water and mountain views, and top notch architecture for the 409sqm four-bedroom home.
But New Zealand and foreign rich-listers with land in Queenstown Lakes have already been building up a storm.
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Briscoes owner Rod Duke is quietly building his family compound near Ayrburn Farm, in the Arrowtown Lake Hayes basin, and rumours around town are that the bill could top out at close to $100m.
Yachting legend Sir Russell Coutts has expanded the private golf course he built on his 41ha Queenstown plot to 18 holes, with locals reporting that wealthy friends are making flying visits on private jets to play the course.
A four-bedroom home on 41ha property on Remarkables Ski Field Access Road, in Queenstown, ticks all the boxes for rich-listers. Photo / Supplied
An artist's impression of lodge Peter Thiel wanted to build on his slice of Queenstown. Photo / Supplied
Some building plans have come undone, though, as American tech billionaire and Kiwi citizen Peter Thiel can attest. His proposed 1165sqm luxury lodge was recently rejected by a Queenstown Lakes District Council independent resource consent panel.
The Paypal co-founder and prominent Donald Trump supporter had wanted to build a 330m-long semi-underground building overlooking Lake Wanaka, but the panel agreed with environmental groups that the lodge would have inappropriately dominated the landscape and been too visible from the nearby Glendhu Bay track.
Thiel bought his 138ha Damper Bay farm block in 2015 for a reported $13.5m, and with other approved building platforms on the property, a luxury lodge could still be legally possible.
It's not just the mega rich who are expanding their real estate portfolios in Queenstown. Joining the rich-lister crowd just before lockdown in 2020 was celebrity chef and MasterChef judge Nadia Lim and her husband Carlos Bagrie, who bought Royalburn Station on the Crown Terrace for an eight-figure sum. This autumn the pair opened a farm shop in nearby Arrowtown to spread their message about growing food sustainably.
Ray White agent Ross Hawkins, who earlier this year set a new Queenstown record of $25.75m for an off-the-plan 920sqm, four-bedroom home, said that land in Queenstown was getting harder and harder to find. High-end property developers B Group had sold two residences in the neighbouring lakeside development for $13m each – none of which are ready until late 2023.
Another $6m deal settled this week, he said.
“Buyers with those budgets [of $5m or more] are very specific about what they’re looking for. It has to be between Wanaka and Queenstown, sheltered, with lake or mountain or river views.
“They’re having to build to get what they want, and they’re pretty particular. There are fewer houses, and they’re quite fussy, so to build gives them what they want.”
Bas Smith, principal of Ray White’s Queenstown office that sold a seven-bedroom home on 9.16ha on Mooney Road, Speargrass Flat, for $18.25m in August last year, said that buyers were still looking for similar finds.
“We have visiting billionaires in town, mostly from Singapore and Hong Kong. But it’s very rare to find a block close to Queenstown, there’s not much for $50m,” he said, adding that some of the bigger stations are on crown leasehold land, making it difficult to build the sort of compounds buyers have in mind.
Sir Russell Coutts' home on the Crown Terrace with part of his private golf course. Photo / Mountain Scene
Celebrity chef Nadia Lim outside her new Arrowtown food store. Photo / Mountain Scene
At the more modest end of the scale, after buying land for $4m or $5m, he said, owners would spend a minimum $5m to $6m on the house build, resulting in at least a $10m property.
Nick Horton, principal of Luxury Real Estate, pointed to recent $5m to $8m house and land deals, but said inventory was tight.
“Our biggest challenge is lack of listings, there’s not a lack of buyers at any price point,” he said, confirming that buyers were now paying over $5m for blocks of land and then spending two years and several more million to build the dream estate.
“Building costs are a bit of a challenge.”
Reddell said that Overseas Investment rules mean that buyers for the big stations have to be New Zealanders. He is seeing a pick-up in listings for spring, and says lifestyle properties worth between $8m and $30m will be coming to market in the next month or two.
“It’s when we get the biggest concentration of people [in Queenstown]. People are buying these as long-term land investments, it’s iconic high country.
“Buyers are a combination of people who live here permanently because they can run their businesses from here, or use them as secondary holiday homes.
“If they need it, Matt and I help them organise things like staffing for property management or concierge services.”
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