An Auckland mansion is aiming to make real estate history when it heads to auction on May 18.
The five-bedroom Arts and Crafts sprawling property at 226 Remuera Road, in Remuera, is the most expensive New Zealand home to be sold under the hammer, and is likely to smash the country’s auction sale price record.
The listing agents, Steve Koerber and Steen Nielsen, of Ray White Remuera, are confident the gamble will pay off for the vendors.
“When you’re dealing with one of the very best properties in New Zealand, selling by auction just makes sense,” Koerber told OneRoof.
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“Steen and I do auctions all the time, and we feel the very best properties generally do very well at auction.”
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Koerber’s message to potential buyers is “hang on because this is unusual”.
The house, known as Barochan, hit the market in February 2023, but it was with a different agency and for sale by way of price negotiation.
The vendors, who have spent millions of dollar upgrading the home, decided to switch tactics and agents at the start of this year.
Their bold move follows several big sales in Auckland’s auction rooms. At the end of February, another Arts and Crafts mansion in Remuera sold under the hammer for a record-breaking $12.8m.
That price just eclipsed the $12.771m paid at auction for a penthouse apartment, also in Remuera, in October 2022.
The reconstruction of the 1916 mansion on Remuera Road added a full basement, terraces and a 10-metre swimming pool. Photo / Supplied
The upper floor loggia has views across the harbour to Rangitoto. Photo / Supplied
Koerber and Nielsen are confident their mansion will raise the bar. “People will fly in to see this specifically,” Nielsen told OneRoof.
The agent pointed out that the price point for properties coming to auction had changed in the 15 years he had been selling in Auckland.
“We find that buyers and sellers are attracted to the auction process because it’s a lot more transparent. It’s a clear signal to any purchaser in the market that when you auction your home, it is genuinely for sale,” he said.
“We can see our colleagues across the ditch selling high-value homes at auction on a weekly basis. So why shouldn’t we be able to do this?”
The agents have done their homework, heading to Ray White’s office in Sydney’s exclusive Double Bay. “There’s one they’re touting as a $40 million auction,” Koerber said.
In May last year a trophy home in the Sydney beach suburb of Manly achieved Australia’s highest residential sale under the hammer, when it sold at a private auction for around A$25m (NZ$27m).
The over-sized principal bedroom suite includes Italian wardrobes and a luxury bathroom. Photo / Supplied
The house opens to gardens completely overhauled by designer Jared Lockhart. Photo / Supplied
Nielsen and Koerber plan to employ the same invitation-only tactic to their May 18 auction. “It is going to be private, held on-site for qualified buyers only,” Nielsen said.
Ray White New Zealand’s head of auctions Sam Steele told OneRoof he was confident Barochan would sell for a record-breaking amount, adding that more and more prestige homes find buyers at auction.
“I don’t think we’re that far away from seeing $15m or $20m, sale at auction,” he said. “Anyone who follows the industry will expect these [sale price] records will be broken every year.
“There’s certainly a lot more people who have that sort of money than you probably realise. We’re seeing holiday homes sell for $10m, $15m, $20m.”
Steele’s Australian counterpart, Ray White’s head of auctions for NSW agreed.
Perry Edmonson-Clark told OneRoof: “In Sydney there are auctions every week over $10m. It’s a regular occurrence.
“Whether an agent’s listing a $400,000 townhouse or a $40m one, they have to unveil the competition – people who won’t muck around for months and months, but who can get themselves sorted in five weeks or six weeks. That’s the beauty of auction, the agents use it as a process to reveal who the buyers are,” he said.
A trophy home on Bower Street, in Manly, Sydney, sold under the hammer last year for around $25m. Photo / Supplied
Barfoot & Thompson agent Murray Smith, who has called three of New Zealand’s top four record-setting auctions, including the current record set at the end of February for $12.8m, said he was excited to see more high-end properties come to auction.
“What’s been stopping people? The principal reason is fear of failure, there’s pride attached to everything, whether you’re the salesperson or the owner,” he told OneRoof.
“So in their minds you can have the opportunity to outstrip their fear,” he said, adding that “when you win, it’s big and it’s visible”.
“My experience in selling high-value items has been very positive. Whether we’re selling an $850,000 home to a first-home buyer or a $12.8m mansion, it’s no different – people are emotionally connected, they’re really excited.
“It’s really how much they want it, not just how much. Then it will be up to me to break the next record.”
Bayleys head of auctions Conor Patton agreed that there was no structural reason why upper-end homes shouldn’t go under the hammer in the same way farms or commercial properties do.
“It’s purely been people’s perception or appetite to do so, vendors and also agents,” he said. He said the numbers showed that while high-end auctions were less common, their clearance rate was higher than average.
Koerber and Nielsen added: “This is an unprecedented opportunity for someone to take ownership of one of this nation’s finest homes.
“No matter what price they end up paying, the lucky future owners of 226 Remuera Road will be inheriting an invaluable work of art. And although it’s impossible to put a price on something you can’t replace, someone soon will.”
- 226 Remuera Road, Remuera, Auckland, goes to auction on May 18
