PHOTO: Kurt and Makere Gibbons. Norrie Montgomery
New Zealand property magnates Kurt and Makere Gibbons have listed their Auckland mansion for sale, potentially setting a new record as the country’s most expensive home if it sells for the anticipated price of “well beyond” $40 million.
The mansion, located on Marine Parade in Herne Bay, is expected to shatter current records, according to luxury property specialists Graham and Ollie Wall of Wall Real Estate.
“The highest price for a residential house in New Zealand is about $40 million at the moment, and this will be well beyond that,” said Ollie Wall.
Despite being on the market for just a few days, the property has already attracted interest from potential buyers in Singapore and the US, as well as “secretive millionaires” from New Zealand.
Graham Wall expressed confidence that the mansion could be sold within a month, looking forward to breaking his own record for the country’s most expensive sale.
The fully redesigned villa at 27 Marine Parade, Herne Bay, boasts 900m² of space on a 2688m² cliff-top site overlooking Waitematā Harbour. Redesigned by renowned New Zealand architects Fearon Hay over the past two years, the home features two media rooms, five bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, a wine cellar, a pool, a guest house, a tennis court, and an entertainment pavilion.
The Gibbons, who have decided to settle in Queenstown, have never lived in the home. Despite its current valuation of $25 million, Wall insists this figure is “not relevant” as the property has been completely rebuilt.
This full redesign of 27 Marine Parade, Herne Bay, set to sell for “well over $40 million” might just be New Zealand’s fanciest house.
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The current record for the most expensive property sold in New Zealand is held by Graham Wall, who sold a seven-bedroom clifftop mansion on Auckland’s Paratai Drive for $38.5 million in 2013. A 15-hectare property in Queenstown reportedly surpassed this record in 2023, selling for $40 million, but CoreLogic notes that the highest residential sale in 2023 was a home on Victoria Avenue in Remuera, Auckland, which sold for $23.8 million.
Currently, a clifftop house in Whakamārama, Western Bay of Plenty, is on the market with an asking price of $20 million. The 1,000m² house on 5.9 hectares features waterfront views of Tauranga Harbour and the Kaimai mountain range, four bedrooms, a guest suite, an internal courtyard, a reflection pool, an indoor soak pool heated by a natural hot spring, a tennis court, an infinity pool, and a putting green.
In Christchurch, a riverfront house recently sold for $8 million, setting a new city record. The five-bedroom, 538m² house on 3300m² of park-like grounds includes a tennis court, swimming pool, outdoor fire, and wine cellar.
Is this the best house in Christchurch? Co-listing agent Cameron Bailey says the $8million sales price of 8 Wood Street, Fendalton has set a new high in the city this year.
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Across New Zealand’s residential housing market, growth has stagnated, according to CoreLogic’s senior economist Kelvin Davidson. The average property value currently stands at $931,438, nearly 1% higher than a year ago but still 11% below the peak. Auckland has seen a notable 0.8% drop in property values in May, while Christchurch experienced a 0.5% increase.
Herne Bay, Auckland, where the $40 million-plus mansion is being sold, remains the most expensive suburb in New Zealand, with properties averaging $3.41 million. While CoreLogic includes the high-end market of million-dollar luxury homes in its analysis, meaningful trends are difficult to deduce due to the market’s small size. The upper quartile, comprising homes starting from $1.1 million, has seen a 13% decline from peak prices, whereas the lower quartile has dropped only 7%.
CoreLogic senior property economist Kelvin Davidson says the very high end luxury housing market is unique, but not completely immune to economic factors affecting the rest of the housing market.
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“The very high end over $20 million is a unique market with so few deals that you can’t really discern any trends because properties selling for $40 million, even $20 million, in New Zealand are quite rare,” Davidson noted.
SOURCE: STUFF