If you happen to have a spare $7.25 million, you can still be in the running to snap up one of New Zealand's most expensive apartments with its views over Auckland city and the harbour.
If you happen to have a spare $7.25 million, you can still be in the running to snap up one of New Zealand's most expensive apartments with its views over Auckland city and the harbour.
Your cash will buy you a Wynard Quarter sixth-floor apartment, featuring a custom-designed kitchen with European appliances and scullery, four bedrooms, a theatre room, private lift and 65 square metres of balcony.
One balcony faces east and overlooks the city and Viaduct Harbour next door, while two west facing balconies offer the chance to bask in the afternoon sun.
An artist's impression of what the 132 Halsey St apartments will look like when they are completed. Photo / Wills Bond & Co
The 232sq m apartment has just come up for sale after its previous owner had a change of circumstances.
It is the last one left in the sold-out 132 Halsey St complex, which has been under construction since November 2015 and is expected to be completed this year.
A look inside an apartment in the 132 Halsey St complex. Photo / Wills Bond & Co
While the Herald understands the sixth-floor residence is not even the most expensive in the Halsey St complex, its $7m-plus price tag still ranks it among Auckland's priciest apartments.
And its sale comes after the Herald last month revealed a new two-level "super penthouse" in Auckland's under-construction 57-storey Pacifica was being marketed for $35 million - a record price for a New Zealand apartment.
Salesman and CBRE national residential projects director, Gavin Lloyd, said, at the time, nothing like the CBD penthouse had ever been sold in the country.
Each of the penthouse's two floors will be 636sq m, making the apartment five times the size of the average New Zealand house, he said.
The penthouse would have four bedrooms, a separate guest suite, formal lounge, chef-style kitchen, butler's kitchen, banquet-style dining area and cellar and wine tasting room.
It would also feature a media room, library, gym, sauna, spa and steam room, art gallery, sky garden with double-height ceiling, personal office, board rooms and up to 12 parking spaces.
One of the living areas in The Pacifica penthouse, with wide waterfront and city views.
It is likely to be joined at the top of the market by a penthouse in the nearby Seascape apartment tower on Auckland's Customs St East.
Developers of that project said they will ask "more than $20m for the master penthouse, which will occupy two floors with five bedrooms, roughly 350sq m and astonishing 360 degree views".
It will be at least two years before each multi-million dollar penthouse is finished in the two under-construction towers.
Elsewhere in the city centre, New Zealand businessman and White House aide Chris Liddell has reportedly paid a deposit for a $15m penthouse apartment in The International.
The ex-Fonterra headquarters at 9 Princes St is being converted into residential use, and developer Gary Groves said the penthouse had sold, but did not confirm Liddell was the buyer.
Plans for a "skygarden" inside The Pacifica's penthouse, being marketed for $35m.
But compiling a list of the most expensive sales was notoriously difficult because they are often sold in multiples, Nick Goodall, research head at CoreLogic NZ, said.
He listed a couple of recent sales that just shaded the asking price at 132 Halsey St.
These included Unit 402 at 424 Remuera Rd, which sold for $8.7m on May 25 last year, and a unit at 4A/154 Saint Stephens Ave, Parnell that went for $8m on March 21, 2016.
Unit 3601/1 [Metropolis] at Courthouse Lane in the CBD also went for $7.85m on May 2 2014, Goodall said.
Around the world, the most expensive penthouse sale was $177m for an apartment in London's Knightsbridge, CBRE's Lloyd said.
This was reportedly bought by Global Radio founder Ashley Tabor, while technology magnate Michael Dell paid $142m for the penthouse of Manhattan's One57 tower.
Australia's most expensive apartment, meanwhile, is set to become a luxurious Sydney penthouse, which property developer John Boyd listed for $70m, Lloyd said.
