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As many of us slog to either get on the property ladder or pay off the mortgage, we can only dream of the places the super-wealthy inhabit - like Graeme and Robyn Hart's sprawling $20 million Glendowie house, said to be the country's most expensive.
However more and more people are joining the mansion club. Barfoot and Thompson is finding that a growing number of its sales in the last year have been at the more expensive end of the market.
Director Peter Thompson says 17.8 per cent of sales in November were for $1 million-plus places, compared with 16.7 per cent in October. Barfoots sold 70 $1 million-plus houses in November, up on the 51 it sold in October. Thompson has been noticing the number of mansion sales gradually climbing throughout last year, a trend he fully expects to continue.
As the number of people able to afford luxury homes grows, real estate agents face another problem - how to separate real buyers from those merely pretending to have the cash.
Astonishing as it may seem, a small group of "Walter Mitty" types regularly attempt to deceive agents and raise their status in society by demanding circuits of exclusive properties.
This has prompted Auckland agency Premium Real Estate to compile a "blacklist" of the men - and women - that make false offers for properties, sometimes promising that although they do not have the funds at hand, money is coming from overseas.
Premium's head Brian Guy, says the agency, which has a $1.8 million average sale price, specialises in selling mansions and its agents pride themselves on being able to spot wealth - or the lack of it - from a distance.
The agency's "pretender list" features 20 to 30 names, including English conman Giovanni di Stefano, a convicted fraudster who arrived in New Zealand in 1990 and made several multimillion-dollar bids on property.
If you think getting enough money together to buy a mansion is a battle, try getting past a savvy agent to view a $10 million-plus property without the cash.
Graham Wall of boutique Parnell agency Coles Real Estate says he has a nose for money. And he believes he can spot pretenders at first glance, or phone call.
"I can smell them down the phone. People with real money do not need to tell you they have it, " says Wall, who gets some of the country's most expensive properties including the Sultan of Brunei's 11 Herne Bay houses, on the market for $35 million.
Guy says agents attempted to establish the financial credentials of buyers well before they spent time showing them through exclusive properties, often only available for viewing by appointment.
"These people on the list can be quite troublesome so it's an important part of our experience to qualify real buyers," Guy says.
Only a psychologist could explain why the group cons agents into thinking they have immense wealth and power and go making offers for properties which they can't afford, he says.
The pre-qualification process before a buyer gets a toe into a mansion includes talking to them, finding out approximately how much wealth they have and how they made it, Guy says.
Agents will take note of the car a buyer drives and the sort of jewellery they are wearing.
"Or lack of it," quips Guy. The way they speak, connections they mention, how they dress and their lawyer are all clues his agents pick up on when working out if people are who they say they are.
But the super-wealthy often dress down, behave casually and are somewhat cavalier in their approach to buying a mansion, Guy says.
Only one definite trait emerges from the mega-rich.
"They're very businesslike in the way they attempt to buy a place." Emotion is often not part of their business life and they bring the same hard-hearted approach to buying an expensive house, he says.
"They don't show their cards, they're often inscrutable and they tend to be cool about the deal."
While high-end home sales are on the rise, not all mansions sell fast. Agents have so far been unable to find a buyer for Wairangi, the stately $9 million colonial villa perched on a Herne Bay clifftop at 8 Wairangi St.
The Sultan of Brunei sold this stately property to an investor, who promptly put it back on the market again where it has languished for more than a year.
Wealthy investors Diane and Bill Foreman sold a Clifton Rd, Takapuna home for $10 million last year, although agents said the deal was conditional on the couple buying another property as part-payment.
Guy says the most expensive house sold by his agency in the last year was the house next door to the Foremans on Clifton Rd, which also went for $10 million.
Last year Premium sold 14 houses for more than $3 million.
One of the mansions currently on the agency's books is a Seacliff Ave home in Belmont which is also known as "Goldstein Manor" after it featured in a series of ASB Bank advertisements. It's on sale for $8 million.
Wall's biggest deal lately was the sale of a Crescent Rd house in Parnell for $7.7 million.
In the next few months, North Shore developer Rick Martin and his Cornerstone Group are expected to announce the sale of the country's newest and most expensive penthouse atop the 30-level Sentinel apartment tower at Takapuna being built by Multiplex.
The opulent unit is expected to fetch $10 million to $15 million.
Slice of paradise
Some of the most most expensive properties up for sale:
* $35 million: Pakatoa Island, Hauraki Gulf. A 24ha private island with three sandy beaches once used as a resort. Owned by meat mogul John Ramsey of Crusader Meats.
* $30 million: Cowes Bay estate on Waiheke Island. 36ha with 1200sq m plantation-style mansion with eight bedrooms, six bathrooms and 9.5m indoor pool.
* $20 million: A large slice of Flat Bush in Manukau City, zoned for high-density housing, 6ha of land next to town centre on Ormiston Rd.
* $16.5 million: Three summer lodges at Tutukaka near Whangaumu Bay. Each two-bedroom unit has its own kitchen and bathroom.
* $15.5 million: Large rural Bay of Islands property, 138ha with two spectacular headlands and about 3km of coastline. Has a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house.
* $10 million: House on Beach Rd, Milford, 1000sq m with six bedrooms, five bathrooms, 21m heated pool, outdoor fire pit.
* $10 million: Manor house near Russell, Bay of Islands, seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
