‘The Prime Minister will have the very best’: Ex-minister on the security at Dame Jacinda Ardern’s home

Dame Jacinda Ardern’s Auckland bungalow is heading to auction next month and buyers could find themselves getting top-of-the-line security features good enough for a Prime Minister.

Ardern and her husband Clarke Gayford bought the four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Sandringham in 2018 for just over $1.7 million.

It was their family home for most of her premiership, but since her move overseas, first to New York, and now to Sydney, it’s become surplus to requirements.

The property hit the market for sale this week and although the marketing doesn’t name the vendors or hint at their status, it does describe the 1930s property as private and “exceptionally secure”.

That doesn’t surprise a former high-profile Cabinet minister, who spoke to OneRoof about the house.

They said the property’s security features would likely go far beyond the electronic gates, noting that a full assessment by security experts and police, under the instruction of ministerial services, would have been carried out.

Such assessments were standard practice, they said, adding that Cabinet ministers would be entitled to a specific home security allowance of up to $4500 for system installation, plus up to $1000 a year for monitoring and maintenance.

The ex-minister said their house had been kitted out with internal and external alarms, a panic system and a panic room, a locked gate and surveillance cameras that were monitored 24/7.

“The Prime Minister will have the very best,” they said, and security would be a priority for Ardern and her family, given that she received several death threats during her time as Prime Minister.

The ex-minister said they had “a dedicated panic room that was deadlocked either side” and that the security system stayed with the house after they left Parliament.

A high-end security system would be a bonus for a home that, according to agents selling in the area, would already be in high demand.

Jared Cooksley, owner of Ray White Mount Eden, who is not involved in the sale, said there was a shortage of good four-bedroom, two-bathroom properties in the Sandringham/Mount Eden area.

“We routinely have very good numbers for these [four-bed, two-bath] properties. They seem to be in hot demand at the moment,” Cooksley told OneRoof.

He said many buyers tossing up whether or not to renovate their own homes often looked at what was for sale and decided to buy something already done instead. “They’re motivated by family situation, rather than market dynamics.”

Cooksley said in the current market, he encouraged buyers to sell first to give them certainty before they go house-hunting, because selling prices were “all over the place.”

But he said the sweet spot in this area was properties at or just under the $2m mark.

Ray White agent Robyn Ellson, who is also not involved in the sale, concurred. “It probably hits the sweet spot in the market in terms of what people want,” she said. “A well-presented, character bungalow, north-facing. It’s got a nice look to it, it should perform well.”

Ardern’s Sandringham home has a CV of $2.3m, but Ellson said that prices in this segment of the market were nuanced, so it was hard to pick what the property would achieve at auction.

Sandringham house prices have been on a rollercoaster ride since Ardern and Gayford purchased the house in 2018. Back then, the average property value in the suburb was $1.12m; now it sits at $1.3m, an increase of only 16%, in line with the overall change in the Auckland market over the last eight years.

However, the eight-year period also includes a 52% leap during the Covid boom and a 23% plunge during the market downturn. In the last three months, Sandringham property values have marginally improved (+0.2%), but they are still 5.4% below where they were a year ago, according to the latest OneRoof-Valocity figures.

Harcourts national auctioneer Shane Cortese felt Ardern had made the right decision by taking the property to auction in the first instance because it was the best chance of getting a quick sale.

Cortese said about 50% of auction properties were selling under the hammer within 23 days (the length of an auction campaign). Of those that passed in, 25% to 35% were selling within 14 days.

“It’s considerably more than any other method of sale within the same time period.”

Overall, auctions were only pulling in about one or two bidders per property, he said, although standout properties could attract four, five or six bidders. “It’s kind of the exception where you have those big flyers at the moment,” he said.

Cortese said a bit of give-and-take was often needed between the seller and buyer to get the auction sale over the line. “It’s just a fair and true market at the moment,” he said.

“I’m finding if both parties are a little bit elastic with their expectations ... that if the buyer thinks they could have bought a little better and the seller thinks they could have sold a little better and they are walking away with the cash, then they are generally going okay.”

However, Ardern and Gayford might have to up their budget for a home of a similar calibre in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where they are reported to be looking to buy.

House prices in Sydney’s northern beaches have risen by more than 5% over the last 12 months, with properties typically fetching around A$4m ($4.89m) in Freshwater and Curl Curl (two suburbs Ardern reportedly had her sights on), according to the latest figures from realestate.com.au.

Compared to property values in the home suburbs of other New Zealand political leaders, Ardern’s Sandringham is doing okay. In Remuera, where Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has a home, the average property value is 25% higher than it was in 2018. Property values in Ōnetangi, on Waiheke Island, where Luxon is reported to own a bach, have done even better, enjoying an increase of 43%.

In the Wellington suburbs where Labour leader Chris Hipkins owns property, values have risen by more than 40% over the same period, while limping along with rises of around 10% are property values in Parnell, where Sir John Key lives, and Mount Eden, where Helen Clark lives.