KEY POINTS:
Rich New Zealanders are holding tight to their flash homes despite the credit crunch putting pressure on cash-strapped investors.
A check with real estate agents dealing in high-end homes revealed there are few bargains to be had in the multi-million-dollar market.
By comparison the Melbourne market has been swamped with expensive homes in exclusive suburbs as wealthy home owners feel the squeeze. Listings for high-end homes have leaped by 24 per cent in Melbourne, compared with the same time last year.
Parnell estate agent Graham Wall who deals in multi-million-dollar homes said Auckland was unlikely to experience the same glut because there were far fewer good properties in the city, nor were there thousands of wealthy young people as in Sydney and Melbourne.
Premium's Penne Milne said she had some high-end clients who were selling their homes to free up capital so they could take on new projects or develop businesses. Prices had dropped and the average sale time had increased from about 30 days to between 80 and 100 days.
However, agents said it was early days in terms of the credit crunch. Just as high-end car companies found themselves swamped with more exotic European cars than they knew what to do with - from cash-strapped owners who have handed over the keys - agents said more expensive homes might come on the market as the economy bites.
There are good buys to be had already if you have plenty of dosh. Property developer Patrick Fontein, whose fortunes changed when his $500 million housing project at Orewa, Kensington Park, collapsed, has been forced to sell his large Remuera home (which has a CV of $6.5m) for well below its worth.
Fontein confirmed yesterday he had received a conditional offer on his large Brent Hulena-designed home, complete with pool and entertainment pavilion, but that it was "substantially below" the property's valuation.
Fontein said he wasn't the only one to lose a family home.
"At the high end many property developers have their family homes on the market. Pretty much every developer is in trouble, so every developer who over the last number of years has got a nice family home, unless they have got it hidden away, they're in trouble."
The houses would go for considerably less than what they were worth because there were less buyers than sellers, he said.
One Remuera real estate agent said he knew of several properties in the $5m-plus range in the past few weeks where people have been compelled to sell. But
Sue Stanaway, franchise owner of Bayleys on the North Shore, said high-end home owners on the Shore tended to have secure equity.
"A lot of the people with very top-end homes, it's old money."
Those with substantial amounts of money "know how to get it and know how to keep it". Stanaway, whose company largely deals in "trophy" homes, said there had been some more expensive homes come on the market recently due to marital splits.
"I think when times get financially a bit more stretched for people sometimes the cracks in the marriage start to show through."
Stanaway's company is currently marketing the 450sq m Sentinel Apartment in Takapuna - for sale for a second time after the first $11m unconditional sale fell through.
Indian businessman Mike Panjwani bought levels 29 and 30 of Cornerstone's luxury Sentinel apartment tower but defaulted earlier this year. Stanaway was confident she would find another buyer for the apartment, which has a CV of $10m, and has had strong interest from Asia and the United Arab Emirates.
On the other side of the bridge Panjwani's former St Mary's Bay home, now owned by Cornerstone's Rick Martin and used as a deposit for the Sentinel apartment, is for sale by Dutch auction (descending price).
The three-storey Victorian villa, on 1961sq m of land with harbour views, sold for $10.15m last August.
