KEY POINTS:
Sales of multi-million dollar houses are booming - even as concerns grow over a slump in the rest of the property market.
Real estate agents at the top end of the market say demand has never been stronger for luxury houses and apartments.
This month, an Indian businessman paid a record $11 million for a penthouse apartment atop the Sentinel tower block in Takapuna.
But agents say most buyers shelling out millions for homes are New Zealanders, rather than wealthy foreigners.
"I have never seen the top end of the market as strong as it is at the moment," Barfoot & Thompson agent Paul Barnao said.
He knew of a four-bedroom home on the seafront at St Heliers which sold for $20 million.
Barnao said that he also had clients lining up for another property listed at $12 million.
"The buyers are normally Kiwis, rather than overseas buyers.
"You wouldn't suspect they have the money - people wouldn't have heard of them.
"Many of them seem to have a background in some form of property," Barnao said.
"In most cases they are locals," agreed Jim Mays, from Premium Real Estate. His company sold a house in Clifton Rd, Takapuna last week for $8 million.
Since April, Premium has sold houses for $8.7 million and $9 million. "Some buyers have been from overseas - but 90 per cent would be local," Mays said.
"There's no mucking around once they see something they like."
Last week, estate agent Michael Boulgaris sold a house in Lucerne Rd, Remuera for $10 million - snapped up on its first day on the market.
In the same week, he flew to Christchurch to list another $10 million house in Fendalton.
"There's a lot of wealth in New Zealand," Boulgaris said. "It's the vanity of real estate. People always want to upgrade to a better investment and a better home."
Estate agent Graham Wall has sold a number of properties in the $6.5 million-$10 million bracket in recent months - "all of them to New Zealanders".
"It's not like they are all bankers or property investors. They are just successful New Zealand people. There are a large number of extremely successful people in New Zealand who weren't there in the 90s."
The spending spree at the top end of the property market comes as confidence in real estate generally appears to be on the slide.
A BNZ survey last week showed many people working in real estate were pessimistic about the sector.
Agents said the market was extremely quiet, with low sales and falling prices, particularly in Auckland.
But it's clearly a different story in the elite property price range.
"Exceptional properties are immune to the market," Wall said. "At that very top end nothing changes."
Still Waiting
* Pakatoa Island, in the Hauraki Gulf, now priced at $40 million, has been on the market for around three years.
* Cowes Bay estate on Waiheke Island, 36ha with a 1200sq m plantation-style mansion, priced at $30 million, has been on the market for nearly 15 months.
* The Princes Wharf penthouse owned by property developer David Henderson has been on the market since last year, priced around $10 million.
* The 46ha Arcadia estate, which is near Glenorchy and is priced at $11 million, has just been taken off the market after several years without a buyer.
