Revealed: 2020’s costliest home
Billionaire toymaker and All Black new owners of $24m Westmere house
Glitz, glamour and booming sales returned to Auckland’s luxury housing market in 2020 with the year’s most expensive sale starring a Hollywood director, an All Black and a billionaire.
That $24 million sale of a sprawling Westmere mansion capped off a “spectacular” 2020 for real estate agents, who began the year fearing a coming economic crisis but ended it posting record sales.
Toy-making billionaire Anna Mowbray and former All Black Ali Williams put down the cash for the Westmere mega-deal.
They snapped up the prized waterfront property — with its Waitemata¯ views and private jetty — from Kiwi filmmaker Andrew Adamson, director of the Academy Award-winning Shrek and Shrek 2.
The $24m price tag soared well above last year’s $15.5m top sale of a picturesque Queenstown home.
It was also not far shy of the $27.5m paid by developers Simon and Paula Herbert in 2018 for their Herne Bay home boasting a helicopter landing area and expansive harbour views.
Ollie Wall of Wall Real Estate said the rollercoaster year started “scary”, especially with March’s Covid-19 lockdown, but ended on a high. “I don’t think anyone predicted what we have seen in the past few months.
“The last quarter of the year has been our most successful in terms of volume of sales ever.”
Pundits had tipped Covid-19’s economic fallout to send Kiwi house prices falling rather than soaring.
Instead, the experts looked on, shocked, as prices hit repeated record highs and Auckland’s median sales
price rose above $1m for the first time.
Initially when Covid hit, the luxury market appeared to be mired in even greater challenges than the wider housing market.
Not only was 2019 a quieter year for mega-sales, but the foreign buyer ban brought into effect in 2018 barred overseas billionaires and Hollywood stars from snapping up Kiwi homes.
Yet, despite the challenges, topend sales soon began taking off together with the wider housing market as the year’s five most expensive house sales totalled $64.25m. That was above 2019’s $62m combined top five sales but still down on 2018.
The Mowbray-Williams mega-buy helped push up 2020’s total a lot.
Mowbray and her brothers Matt and Nick have a NBR Richlistestimated $3 billion fortune after cofounding toy company Zuru.
The siblings were also involved four years ago in an even bigger house deal when they paid $32.5m for
their “Toy Mansion” in Coatesville.
A sprawling estate built in 2006 for the multi-millionaire founder of online retailer Chrisco, Richard Bradley, it was made famous when Kim Dotcom rented it for a reported $1m a year.
However, both Mowbray’s megabuys still fall short of New Zealand’s most expensive house sale.
Meat exporter Deyi Shi set that record in 2013 when paying $38.5m for a Paritai Drive mansion that came with harbour views, an indoor pool and space for 12 cars.
This year’s second costliest sale, meanwhile, was a $12.25m Takapuna beachfront mansion boasting some of Auckland’s best views of Rangitoto Island, according to house sale data provided by analysts Valocity.
The four-storey home’s new owners — a North Shore family — can now enjoy the views while splashing in their infinity pool and sipping bubbly from their 420-bottle capacity
wine cellar.
Two mansions on
Arney Cres and Victoria
Ave in Remuera, selling for $10.5m and $10m, ranked next on the price list. Then came a clifftop Waiheke Island mansion with beautiful views over the Hauraki Gulf ($9m).
The Oneroa home was a Homes magazine 2014 Home of the Year finalist designed by architect Wendy Shacklock and boasted sea views from every one of its rooms.
Pene Milne from New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty said the raft of high-end sales in the second half of 2020 was partly due to pent-up demand that had built during the quieter 2019.
But Milne — who confirmed she made a $24m sale this year but didn’t reveal more details about it — said NZ’s Covid-19 lockdowns also played a part in boosting demand.
“People are spending more time at home and coming to the realisation that family time is important.
“It is not always about being on fast-paced trips, but also about having quality time and that has them looking for quality homes,” Milne said.
Wall said record low interest rates had also played a key role in convincing buyers to act now.
He linked his agency to this year’s largest sale, adding it also made a $12m sale on Victoria Ave, a $10m Parnell clifftop sale and Ponsonby’s most expensive sale ever at over $7m.
With some of these private deals not showing up in public records, the total combined amount of the top five sales for 2020 was likely even higher. And while it might be hard for the top-end market to return to its pre-foreign-buyer-ban heights, returning expat Kiwis were helping boost demand, Wall said.
“We have serious buyers lining up for high quality and well-finished homes in Herne Bay and Remuera at the moment. The only issue is the lack of high-quality stock,” he said.
Steen Nielsen of Ray White Remuera said the market for homes up to $2m was still “red-hot”, while that for homes above $4m was hot but slower-moving due to buyers being “picky”. “It is like anything in life — the more expensive the home, the longer the list of requirements.
“Many of the people who are looking in the $5m-$8m range are in nice homes themselves,” he said.
“They will only buy if they find something that ticks the boxes that are missing in their existing home.”
Nielsen said his agency had posted new monthly sales records in each of the past five months.
Wellington’s most expensive sale was a six-bedroom Khandallah mansion on Clive Rd that fetched $5.8m.
In Christchurch, the top sale was a $4.6m architecturally designed home on Garden Rd in Merivale.