Richlister selling ‘most expensive house in NZ’

Sunday, 9 June 2024

New Zealand property richlisters Kurt and Makere Gibbons have put their Auckland mansion up for sale in what agents say will be the most expensive house ever sold in the country if it gets the asking price of “well beyond” $40m.

The house on Marine Parade, Herne Bay is set to bust current records, its agent luxury property specialists Graham and Ollie Wall of Wall Real Estate told Stuff.

“The highest price in New Zealand for a residential house is about $40 million at the moment, and this will be well beyond that,” said Ollie Wall.

Despite only being on the market for days, he’s already had inquiries from potential buyers from Singapore and the US, as well as “secretive millionaires” from New Zealand.

Graham Wall said he’s confident it will be sold in as little as a month and is already looking forward to breaking his own record for the country’s most expensive sale.

A 900m² villa conversion on a 2688m² cliff-top site looking out across the Waitematā harbour, the house has been redesigned over the last two years by leading New Zealand architects Fearon Hay.

There’s two media rooms (one for the kids, one for the parents), five bedrooms, six and half bathrooms, wine cellar, pool, guest house, tennis court and its own entertaining pavillion.

Its owners, the Gibbons, have never even lived in the home, having now decided to settle in Queenstown.

With a current CV of $25m, Wall says that is “not relevant” as the home has been “gutted to a shell and rebuilt”.

The most expensive property ever sold in New Zealand, also by Graham Wall, is a seven-bedroom clifftop mansion in Auckland’s millionaire row, Paratai Drive. Developed by former Hanover Finance director Mark Hotchin, the property sold for $38,500,000 in 2013.

A 15 hectare property in Queenstown reportedly broke that record in 2023, selling at $40m, but according to Corelogic, the most expensive house sold in 2023 was in Victoria Avenue, Remuera, Auckland, which sold for $23.8 million.

A clifftop house in Whakamārama, Western Bay of Plenty, is currently on the market with an asking price of $20m.

With waterfront views of Tauranga Harbour and the Kaimai mountain range the 1,000m² house on 5.9 hectares has four bedrooms, guest suite, internal courtyard, reflection pool, an indoor soak pool heated by a natural hot spring, tennis court, infinity pool, and even its own putting green.

In April, a riverfront house sold in Christchurch for $8m and broke records for sales in the city.

The five bedroom 538m² house on 3300m² park-like grounds, came with the obligatory luxury home features such as a tennis court, swimming pool, outdoor fire and wine cellar.

Across the residential housing market as a whole, the slow down in growth has become stagnation, says Kelvin, senior economist at property CoreLogic.

The average property value currently sits at $931,438, which is up nearly 1% from a year ago, however still 11% less than the peak.

Auckland has been at the forefront of the stagnation, with values dropping a notable 0.8% in May, followed by falls in Wellington (0.6%) and Tauranga (0.5%). By contrast, Christchurch rose 0.5%, and Hamilton and Dunedin both saw gains of 0.8% over the month, according to latest Corelogic data released this week.

Herne Bay Auckland, where the $40m plus house is being sold, remains the most expensive suburb in Auckland, and in the whole of New Zealand with property there averaging $3.41m.

The high end residential market of million dollar luxury homes is included in Corelogic’s analysis, but it is difficult to deduce any meaningful trends because that market is so small, he says.

Corelogic would group these homes in its upper quartile, but as homes start there from $1.1m, and go right up to the mega sales.

“This upper quartile is down 13% from peak prices, compared to the lower quartile containing the cheapest properties which is only down 7% from the peak.

So there's some evidence that the higher end of the market has been a little bit weaker as prices in the luxury market have fallen almost double cheaper properties, but whether the highest costing properties are affected by that is difficult to say.

“The very high end over $20m is a unique market with so few deals that you can’'t really discern any trends because properties selling for $40m, even $20m, in New Zealand are quite rare.”

While multimillionaire buyers may not be affected by economic factors that are impacting average buyers in the housing market, such as mortgage availability, interest rates, job insecurity, the luxury end is not immune to the downturn says Davidson.

Jason Eves is a “luxury specialist” at Oliver Road Real Estate.

“We operate solely in the upper segment of the NZ market, the top end of which historically performs independently of the market…driven by unique dynamics and high net-worth individuals with specific desires and requirements.

Buyers in the upper end of the market are particular and typically don't need or wish to compromise on their ideal, says Eves.

“We find many of our customers are in the market looking for more than a year or two, prepared to wait for their particular preference.”

Queenstown continues to be a particular “magnet” for buyers across New Zealand and beyond, he said.

Interestingly, the region's year-to-date statistics for sales above $5 million are remarkably comparable to the same periods in 2023 and 2022. This demonstrates a stable market.

The Bay of Plenty has seen a slower-than-normal upper market segment this year for sales, he says, but in the last six weeks they have made six sales in the mid to high $2m.

“It's far too early to suggest a market shift underlies these recent sales but it is consistent with the sporadic nature of the property market's awkward recovery from its recent cycle bottom late last year.”

“We have a pipeline of exceptional properties entering the market late this year/early next and it's clear the pause is coming to an end and that people are now starting to commit to their plans.”