Queenstown is home to some of the country's most desirable homes, including the new house price record holder. Photo / Getty Images
Queenstown is home to some of the country's most desirable homes, including the new house price record holder. Photo / Getty Images
New Zealand’s house price record has been broken, OneRoof can reveal.
A 15ha-plus estate in Queenstown sold earlier this year for well over $40 million – making it the country’s most expensive house of all time.
OneRoof confirmed the sale of the trophy home with the agent who brokered the deal, but confidentiality clauses and privacy concerns prevent OneRoof from revealing the property’s address.
Queenstown agent Hamish Walker, of Walker and Co Realty, declined to identify the buyer or seller involved in the deal, telling OneRoof: “I prefer to keep these sales under the radar, which is why people use my company.”
OneRoof understands the sale does not settle for some time, and that part of the land can potentially be subdivided.
That record, achieved by rich lister agent Graham Wall, of Wall Real Estate, had stood unchallenged for 10 years, with only one other home – the Coatesville mansion owned by the ZURU Toys billionaires – coming close with a sale price of $32.5m in 2016.
Walker says the $40m-plus luxury estate is one of several prestige properties he has sold in the past 18 months, including one for $15m.
“I have just got back from my latest sales trip to Singapore, where buyers are very interested in Queenstown,” he says. “They are looking for boltholes to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. They have busy lives, and you have to be straight to the point.
“Some of them are very high profile and I help them with things other than property. They’ll text me overnight that they’re landing at the airport at 10am and want to see what we’ve got or ask us to go and buy them a car, or golf clubs or gear to go tramping in.
Queenstown agent Hamish Walker: "These sales often take a long time to transact - months or years even." Photo / Supplied
Walker is selling a four-bedroom new-build at 1 De La Perrelle Lane, in Arrowtown, near Queenstown, by way of price by negotiation. Artwork / Supplied
“For me it’s about serving people and helping them with whatever they need to enjoy Queenstown a little bit more.”
Walker told OneRoof he does not expect another $40m-plus deal in his patch any time soon but thinks more sales in the upper price bracket are likely.
“That’s a lot of money for a property, but who knows what’s coming out,” he says of the $40m-plus sale price.
“You will see the odd property, more in that $15m to $20m range, but we won’t see much of a difference under $7m to $8m. That said, at the end of 2022, I did have one property that I could have sold twice over to Americans for over $20m.”
He told OneRoof that putting big deals together takes time.
“These sales often take a long time to transact – months or years even. I am currently working on another four or five off-market sales, a couple of these are north of $15m. They will come onto the open market if they don’t sell over the next few months,” he adds.
“My three biggest sales to date have all been sold through my networks and off-market. Vendors often prefer their privacy, and buyers know I know what’s on and off the market.”
Walker is currently marketing a luxury four-bedroom home new-build in Millbrook’s Mill Farm, which he expects to sell for around $10m. The 460sqm home near the new nine holes of the Coronet golf course was designed by renowned architects Mason & Wales and is slated for completion in late 2024.
For 10 years, Huriaro Place, in Auckland's Orakei, has been New Zealand’s most expensive home when it sold for $38.5m. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Third-place: The Coatesville mansion formerly occupied by Kim Dotcom was bought by the owners of Zuru Toys in 2016 for $32.5m. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof sales data shows several big-ticket sales in Queenstown-Lakes in 2023. In April, a trophy house on 1.27ha in a gated community on Jacks Point, on Hidden Island Rd, sold for just over $19m, well above its CV of $11.35m.
And in January, in Wānaka, a near-new house on 3.6ha on Mount Barker Rd sold for $10m. It had won a regional master builders’ award in 2020 and came with a pool, guesthouse and numerous living spaces.
Analysis by OneRoof’s data partner, Valocity, shows 2023 has been a slow year for the luxury market nationwide, with just 79 settled sales of $5m and above, compared with 282 in 2022 and 387 in 2021. The highest settled sale so far this year is of a glass and steel mansion on Burwood Crescent, in Remuera, Auckland. The property, marketed by Graham Wall, sold for $20.6m.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said: “While the $40m-plus deal came together before National announced its intention to remove the foreign buyer ban, the policy pledge has resulted in a spike in overseas interest. More sales at this level are highly likely and local buyers will struggle to compete against overseas billionaires who don’t think twice about spending hundreds of millions on real estate.
“$40m-plus may seem like an astronomical sum to most Kiwis, but in the global luxury market it’s peanuts. The world’s most expensive listing, a Georgian mansion in London’s Regent’s Park, is on the market for sale for £250 million, so New Zealand is at the bargain end of the market.”
Valocity senior research analyst Wayne Shum said there were constraints on New Zealand’s prestige market.
“The buyer pool for luxury homes in Queenstown and Auckland is limited, but so too is the amount of stock in that value bracket. There is only a handful of homes that could realistically break $50m and their value is tied to very specific locations, and they tend to be tightly held.”
