OneRoof: The most expensive places to live in New Zealand revealed. Video / OneRoof
A "once in a lifetime" coastal Wellington apartment could become the capital's most expensive property sale, with an asking price of $6.25m.
Listed today, the Oriental Bay apartment is owned by New Zealand art collector and philanthropist Chris Parkin, who bought the property in late 2020.
Built in the 1920s, Parkin said the 450 sq metre "Parisian" apartment is in a prime location and "absolutely unique" - but would have to go to the right person.
"The right buyer will be quite happy to pay that sort of money, I think," Parkin said.
"This has never been on the open market, and these sorts of properties only come up once in someone's lifetime."
Parkin said the apartment was built on Oriental Parade in the 1920s, believed to be the first rental apartments in Oriental Bay at the time, and big enough to have a tennis court on the roof.
The "European-style" apartment was built in the 1920s. Photo / OneRoof
He described the three-bedroom apartment on Wellington's waterfront as "absolutely unique".
"The apartment itself is the only apartment I've seen – certainly in Wellington – which is very much Parisian in concept, or European if you like."
"The ceilings are 3.2 m with lots of plaster work on the ceilings, and the whole apartment is painted white with dark wooden floors.
The apartment has been listed for $6.25m. Photo / OneRoof
"All of the doors in the main part of the apartment are double doors and all 2.8 metres high – sort of like a smaller version of those palaces you get in Europe."
He said they had bought the apartment as a home for their art collection, but in the meantime an old apartment of Parkin's had come back onto the market.
They decided to move back to the Museum Apartments, where their art collection already lived.
"So we ended up buying the [Oriental Bay] property as our home for about 11 months, and now we've decided that someone else needs it more than we do," he said.
The three-bedroom apartment is described as "Parisian". Photo / OneRoof
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said by their records, the listing would be Wellington's most expensive property – and definitely most expensive apartment – on the market, if it went for the asking price of $6.25m.
"There has been a significant lift in Wellington prices in general, and Oriental Bay is Wellington's most expensive suburb," he said.
"Over the past year the average property value in Oriental Bay had lifted by 27 per cent to $2.61m."
"There is demand out there in the higher end of the market, and if any suburb is primed for the prize of Wellington's most expensive home its Oriental Bay.
The most expensive sale in Wellington to date is a five-bedroom home in Thorndon, which sold for $6m in February – however it had initially been listed with an asking price of $7.95.
