New apartment block a first in Auckland’s CBD for several years

A recently launched luxury apartment block in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter is the first new complex slated for the CBD in several years, but any buyers will need deep pockets.

NZX-listed Winton Land has just started marketing the 21 apartments in its “most exclusive residential project to date”, The Villard, and prices begin at $5.4 million.

That would buy a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home of 166 square metres but there were four and five-bedroom configurations available at higher prices.

All apartments in the waterfront-located, 12-level block would feature balconies, views, and car parks, and there would be a 24-hour concierge service.

The most expensive offering was the 542 square metres sub penthouse, which would have four bedrooms and four bathrooms, and was going for $29m.

Apartment pre-sales have been languishing since the market boom peaked in late 2021, and by late last year they had fallen to global financial crisis-era lows.

But Winton Land chief executive Chris Meehan was confident there was demand for the type of high-end apartments that would make up The Villard.

There was a growing demographic of welloff Aucklanders who wanted to downsize from large properties to spend more time at their holiday home working remotely, or travelling, he said.

“And if you are selling out of an Auckland property, it doesn’t take a lot to sell a good home in Auckland for $5m plus these days.

“This group is not at the stage of life catered to by our subsidiary, Northbrook, which is developing a luxury retirement village in Wynyard Quarter, but they are interested in a premium ‘lock up and leave’ option.”

His company had looked at different apartment buildings around the country that had some good attributes, but it could not find any that had all those attributes in the one building.

The site for The Villard, on the corner of Pakenham St West and Daldy St, was the only freehold site in Wynyard Quarter, and most other apartments in the area were sold on a leasehold basis, he said.