Chris Seel, developer, mechanical engineer and accountant, is in charge of building the country's most expensive new house, the $40 million-plus Helena Bay mansion for Russian billionaire Alexander Abramov.
This is his third large house in the Bay of Islands region and while mansions are his niche rather than affordable new housing, he says he has studied with great interest the country's high house prices.
"My logic is that it is hard to see how house prices could drop significantly and that Government and councils can really do little to encourage this.
"House prices are determined by supply and demand and the cost of new housing. If you accept that New Zealand's population will keep growing, then house prices in main centres will be mainly influenced by the replacement cost of an existing house or the total cost of a new house," says Seel, who lived in London, New York and Moscow where he worked in finance.
"If you look at the cost components of a new house, you see that it is largely made up of land prices, materials, labour, compliance and profit. The materials are essentially commodities driven by worldwide prices such as steel, timber and concrete and those can't be easily influenced - a little like milk, the international market sets the price.