Wealthy Kiwis are still spending up large, despite tough times.
Luxury travel, holiday homes, mega-mansions, supercars, wine and art. Jane Phare looks at where uber-wealthy Kiwis are splashing the cash despite the tough economy.
Ruwan Siriwardena, brand manager for Rolls-Royce in New Zealand, is quietly pleased at this year’s sales. Seven Rollers sold in the first six months of this year might not seem a lot but when you’re talking cars that start at $750,000 and reach more than $1 million after bespoke detailing, it’s not a bad tally in a tough economic climate.
Earlier this year, a home in Auckland’s Paritai Drive sold for more than $20m. Several more in Auckland and in Queenstown have sold in the “teens” of millions. Business and first-class flights are full. Allocations for supercars, some worth $1m a piece, are snapped up in pre-sales as soon as they are released. And this year, a Kiwi couple booked a world cruise that will cost them nearly $500,000.
It’s a sign that there’s still plenty of money swilling around out there and that wealthy Kiwis are still willing to part with it. IRD tax data from 2022 shows the top 1% of New Zealand taxpayers have a combined income of $20.6 billion and an average income of $455,000.
That’s not to say trade under the mega-wealthy level is booming; far from it. Sales of just about every car brand are down, expensive cars like BMWs, Mercedes and Audis are languishing in showrooms, retail – including luxury goods – is struggling, hospitality is in trouble and the housing market is flat.
High interest rates, the rising cost of living, job uncertainty and a tough business climate have put the brakes on discretionary spending. But for those at the high end of a six-figure income, or even seven figures, trust-fund babies, inherited wealth or with Baby Boomer nest eggs – estimated to have a combined worth of $1.2 trillion – life goes on.
Herald inquiries reveal that Kiwis with plenty of money are still living the life – holidaying in the Mediterranean (Ibiza is popular), France and Italy, and shopping at Roberto Cavalli stores while they’re there; popping over to Sydney for a weekend; joining friends for a birthday bash at the five-star Kokomo Private island in Fiji; or de-stressing at a $4000-a-night luxury lodge. They still hop on helicopters when they’re in a hurry, or jet – sometimes privately – into Queenstown for a round of golf and a change of scenery. And plenty of Kiwis attended the Paris Olympics, some forking out as much as $2000 for a ticket to an event.
Although Mitre 10 and Bunnings are quieter at weekends now, there are still Kiwis out there buying Hermes Birkin handbags (costing anywhere between $30,000 to $100,000) or popping in to see Eddie von Dadelszen at Faradays in Parnell, of which Dan and Honor Carter are shareholders, to spend thousands on designer shoes and clothes – $8290 for a Loewe bomber jacket or $199 for a Studio Pia strap thong.
Travel specialists tell their high-end clients to book well ahead to get a business-class seat, warning the front end of the aircraft fills quickly. One Aucklander who flew first class on Emirates to her villa in France earlier this year says the cabin was full. She and her husband paid $35,000 for their two airfares.
Air New Zealand has met strong demands for its premium cabins, particularly on long-haul flights, by increasing capacity between November and March next year to Asia, adding another 42,000 seats in either Business Premier or Premium Economy. In Auckland, the Koru Club gets so full, the overflow is directed to the Strata Lounge.
Qatar Airways, whose QSuite business class is edging close to first class, reports “very robust double-digit growth” since resuming its direct-to-Doha service from New Zealand last September, despite a slight dip in demand this year. QSuite airfares run at around $10,200 to Europe return and there’s no shortage of takers.
Emirates, too, reports consistent demand for its premium cabins, according to its New Zealand company manager, Chris Lethbridge.
“These customers cover a wide spectrum of Kiwis from people travelling on business, bucket-listers ticking off a dream trip, and families seeing the premium cabins on their way to Europe and deciding to upgrade on the way home.”
Similarly, ocean and river cruise agents say the vessels fill from the top down. Expensive cabins high up, with a balcony, sell first. Those near, or under, the waterline, not so much. Kiwis have contributed to high occupancy levels on luxury Regent Seven Seas Cruises this year, with strong interest already in the company’s 2027 140-night world cruise, stopping at 71 ports in the US, the Caribbean, the Pacific islands, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa and Europe.
Lisa Pile, vice-president sales and general manager Asia Pacific, says Kiwis are booking higher-level cabins, including concierge and penthouse suites which come with a personal butler.
Silversea’s small luxury ships are popular with Kiwis couples, who typically spend $27,000 to $33,000 on a classic cruise and $38,000 to $50,000 for an expedition cruise, plus $20,000 for business-class airfares and other extended travel on either side of the cruise.
Several Kiwis have booked “upper” suites, with a private jacuzzi, at $109,500 per person. And still more have booked Silversea’s 130-plus-day world cruise, starting at $142,000 per person, with one New Zealand couple forking out a total of $493,000 for an upper suite.
Flight Centre travel and cruise specialist Amanda Elliott, at Eastridge, which services wealthy clients in Auckland’s eastern suburbs, has recently booked a Seabourn Antarctica cruise, with an option for a submarine expedition, in a penthouse for a client and her two adult children, at a cost of $120,000 plus business-class airfares at $9000 each.
Elliott’s also working on a $100,000 trip to Africa for a family of five, including a luxury stopover in Dubai. Others in the company are putting together bespoke itineraries to Nepal and Bhutan, South America, Egypt, Europe and New England, with Japan another popular destination. This year, clients have booked ocean and river cruises as far ahead as December 2025, she says.
Viking’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Michelle Black, says European river cruises are popular with Kiwis, such as a 15-day tour from Budapest to Amsterdam. A standard French balcony cabin costs $14,000 per person, with larger cabins costing between $22,000 and $27,000.
The supercar end of the market is also a good litmus test to demonstrate what wealthy New Zealanders are spending big on. At least 11 Kiwi Lamborghini enthusiasts have forked out around $1m each for the new Revuelto V12 hybrid, with the allocation selling out immediately. One Auckland Ferrari dealer quickly sold out of its allocation for the $1m 12Cilindri – new owners can easily spend another $100,000 on “extras” – and the $750,000 SUV Purosangue V12.
Motor Industry Association sales data of cars and SUVs worth more than $100,000, and sports cars worth more than $80,000, show that in the first seven months of this year wealthy Kiwis bought 132 BMWs, 90 Lexus, 25 Ferraris, 26 Aston Martins, eight Bentleys, 22 Lamborghinis, 88 Porches and 180 new Land Rovers, a family SUV priced between $120,000 and $415, 600.
Last year, five new McLarens sold in New Zealand. This year seven have sold already, collectively worth millions of dollars.
Rolls-Royce’s Siriwardena says New Zealanders, both repeat and new clients, buy a mixture of the SUV Cullinan Series II, the luxury EV Spectre, the Ghost and the Phantom – worth more than $1m. The base price is just a starting point because owners will inevitably stamp their individual specs on their new Roller – a head-turning paint finish, bright leather trim, personalised embroidery or their name embossed on the tread plate inside the door.
“It’s entirely limited by patience and imagination,” Siriwardena says.
New owners have the option of travelling to the Rolls-Royce headquarters in Goodwood, southern England, to visit their car and confirm the finishing touches.
“No two cars ultimately are the same. That’s something that Rolls Royce prides itself on,” Siriwanda says.
As far as he’s concerned, there is no shortage of discretionary spending by wealthy Kiwis – although sales are slower this year.
“Cars that are in excess of $850,000 plus, that audience is still very much spending money.”
High-end real estate agents say the wealthy buyers are still there and that although very expensive properties are taking longer to sell, sales of more than $10m aren’t unusual. Agents spoken to by the Herald all expect the market to improve as suddenly as it slumped. But for many, interest rates or what the property market is doing isn’t an issue. This month, an original 1930s bach on Mount Maunganui’s Marine Parade sold for $8m at auction in just two minutes.
On Waiheke Island, a 1980s-era house on The Strand in Ōnetangi sold for $8m in April this year, adding to another sale in the street of $11.6m late last year, nearly double its CV of $6.5m. In April and June this year, two Ōneroa properties sold for $6.65m and $6.5m.
Defying recessional trends, property sales on Waiheke totalled $15.76m last month, compared to $11.9m in July 2023. Sales in April, May and June followed the same trend, with sales well up on the previous year.
Bayleys estate agent Gary Wallace, who specialises in property in Remuera, Parnell and the eastern suburbs, says buyers in the $8m to $9m bracket are still around. At least 10 properties worth more than $10m have sold in the past six months, he says.
“There is a lot of money in the market for the right type of property.”
Agent Graham Wall has handled a couple of confidential sales this year, one in Remuera and one in Herne Bay, and both over $15m.
“Things are taking longer to sell but that’s often the way with high-end properties.”
Multi-million-dollar sales are happening in the Queenstown-Lakes District too. Sotheby’s agent Matt Finnigan says although sales of property between $7m and $10m – usually Kiwis or Australians buying second or third homes – have been “a bit sticky” in recent months, the higher end of the market is still buoyant.
Finnigan knows of several sales in Queenstown-Lakes of more than $10m and one of more than $20m. Sotheby’s expects to be busier as spring listings come on the market and wealthy visitors start looking at property, he says.
“There are numerous private jets sitting in Queenstown Airport today.”
Precision estate agent Di Belich, who specialises in Ōmaha, Point Wells and Matakana properties north of Auckland, says she has buyers in the $5m-plus bracket wanting to find a property but the choice is limited with less than a dozen properties currently for sale.
“They’re looking for the right property and because there’s been very little on the market, it’s been hard to satisfy them.”
Belich holds the record for an Ōmaha beachfront property, which sold for $9.1m last year, and she thinks prices will head back in that direction once properties come on the market.
In the meantime, several high-end “off market” sales have occurred between vendors and buyers who know each other, she says.
Although Auckland Council building consents are down this year, a blip like a recession isn’t going to get in the way of a multi-millionaire’s dream home.
Seven consents in the $4m to $5m build-cost bracket have been issued by the council this year, two in the $7m to $9m bracket, two worth $10m to $11m and one worth $12m to $13m.
Sources in the industry say an exclusive Sumich-designed home currently under construction on a Mission Bay site bought more than 10 years ago for $13m is likely to be costing more than $40m. And a high-spec home being built for a prominent Auckland family above Auckland’s Ōkahu Bay is again worth tens of millions of dollars.
High-end property developer Martin Cooper, who is building a luxury apartment block, One Saint Stephen, in Parnell, has made it his business to study what the very rich want and need, borrowing ideas from apartment developments he has visited overseas.
As a result, he’s thought of everything: extra-wide car parking spaces – one of the penthouses has six – and a sculpted gradient so that low-slung supercars won’t scrape on the way down. There are large storage rooms in the basement and a bespoke car wash bay (and a dog wash). Amenities include a heated pool, a wellness centre, fireplaces, a private bar and cinema room, and a dining room with a full chef’s kitchen which can be booked by residents.
Out of the 28 apartments in the block, still under construction, only four are left to sell, ranging from $4.2m to $15.25m for a three-bedroom penthouse. Once those are sold, sales will top $170m. Cooper says typically his clients have downsized from large homes and want a lock-up-and-leave base close to the city while they travel or spend time in their holiday homes.
Although sales of art and collectibles are generally flat, collectable art by well-known New Zealand artists is still selling well and, in some cases, fetching prices at auction thousands of dollars above expectation.
At least nine Goldies have sold this year, with buyers paying between $500,000 and $1m and one reaching $2m. In March, the International Art Centre in Parnell sold Girl with a Balloon by British street artist Banksy for $600,600.
Caolan McAleer, head of marketing and collectors’ cars at Webb’s, says sales of the “big name” New Zealand artists – the likes of Bill Hammond, Colin McCahon, Tony Fomison, Milan Mrkusich, Louise Henderson and Sir Grahame Sydney – are still strong.
“People have not stopped collecting art. Those big-ticket buyers are still there.”
At a Webb’s auction last month, a work by art photographer Fiona Pardington, Andrew’s Huia Pair, sold for $77,675, well above its estimate of $30,000 to $50,000.
A Reihana triptych sold for more than $92,000 this year and an Ann Robinson crystal glass vase sold for nearly $90,000. One of Don Binney’s works sold for $700,000.
Wealthy wine buffs, too, aren’t holding back. Although wine buyers are watching their budgets, the hard-to-get wines lusted after by collectors are “well and truly” over-subscribed, according to Scott Gray, who founded Auckland-based French wine merchant Maison Vauron with Jean-Christophe Poizat nearly 30 years ago.
Collectors will pay anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 a bottle, as will New Zealand winemakers who want to sample the best of Old World wine.
“For the very top end, there will always be a market,” Gray says.
Limited allocations from areas like Burgundy and Bordeaux mean rare wines sell out to New Zealand collectors before they arrive.
“It’s not unusual for someone to spend over a hundred thousand dollars.”
Maison Vauron sells one of the world’s most collectable reds from the Bordeaux wine estate Petrus, bottles that retail for between $6000 and $20,000 each, depending on the vintage.
Gray says there will be a list of Kiwi collectors lining up for wines from the likes of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti (DRC), which are sold under strict allocation by Peter Maude Fine Wines for around $10,000 plus.
“Those sorts of wines are very collectable,” Gray says. And New Zealand, because of its small market, is one of the cheapest places in the world to buy them.
“Overseas, you have people queuing up, frothing at the mouth to get these wines.”
The majority of clients might justify the expense as an investment, he says. “But in New Zealand, they’re drinkers. They end up drinking [it].”
Jane Phare is a senior Auckland-based business, features and investigations journalist, former assistant editor of the NZ Herald and former editor of the Weekend Herald and Viva.
Demand for bonds may well stay strong, but there's a catch.