Buyers pay big dollars for city homes in 2023

Wednesday, 27 December 2023

Whatever Christchurch’s real estate market is doing, there are always buyers prepared to pay millions for a luxury home.

The average purchaser in the city paid about $700,000 for their home this year, but a handful parted with $4 million-plus.

While prices for some big sales are not yet on the public record and remain confidential, a list of the top sellers would include two apartments in the Oxford apartment tower on Oxford Tce, and three homes in the Fendalton-Merivale area.

One of those was the $4.1 million price for a modern Fendalton home on Wood Lane on the banks of the Avon River, directly opposite Hagley Park.

The 503m2 house on a 1011m2 section is about five years old, and designed by Cymon Allfrey Architects. It is on two levels with five bedrooms and six bathrooms, with park views and an inground pool.

Although small, Wood Lane has some very valuable homes, including a riverside home on a large section with an estimated value of about $8m, which is also up for sale.

A large modern house on Merivale Lane with a rating valuation of $4.81m has also sold, as has a house on Clifford Ave in a similar price bracket, both in Merivale.

Harcourts agent Alison Aitken, who handled the Wood Lane sale, said they had multiple offers for the home.

Another house on a 779m2 site on Shrewsbury St, Merivale, sold earlier this year at auction for $3.925m after five parties bid, she said.

That home has been built almost to the perimeter on three sides, surrounding a lawn, garden and swimming pool.

“There are plenty of people wanting those sort of post-earthquake built homes in a good location,” Aitken said.

“Some of them are sold off the market. There are good buyers out there.”

Aitken said top-end buyers include returning expatriates who had been successful overseas.

“They are wanting to bring their families to live here, especially with the way the city is being built back.”

Other homes selling in the $3m to $4m price band during 2023 were sold on Fendalton Rd, Royds Street, and Glandovey Road.

Bayleys real estate Adam Heazlewood confirmed apartment 9 in the newly-renovated Oxford building had sold for more than $4m, with apartment 10 selling for “well over $4m” and setting a dollar-per-metre price record.

“We’ve been dealing with a number of homes in that price range. It’s interesting to see there’s some buyer momentum and there’s been market movement at that level.”

Heazlewood said when it comes to apartments, buyers will pay more for the views and the status of a higher floor.

While the city’s dearest homes are undoubtedly desirable properties, broadening the look at 2023’s top real estate prices to the rest of the country puts Christchurch sales in the shade.

At $19.22m, the highest South Island price paid was for a very luxurious Queenstown home on 1.2ha of land on Hidden Bay Rd, Jacks Point.

The lakeside house is clad in local schist stone, cedar, concrete, bronze and steel.

It was the fourth highest price paid across the country during the year, behind three Auckland sales. The nation’s top sale was $23.8m for a Remuera house once owned by Kiwi sailor Grant Dalton.

Second dearest in the South Island, and fifth dearest in the country, was a house on Buchanan Rise, Glendhu Bay, Wanaka, for which a buyer paid $16m.