- Buyers in the mansion market seek large, immaculately finished homes with no compromises, say agents.
- Increased interest from ultra-wealthy buyers, including expats and overseas individuals, is driving the market.
- Demand is strong for homes offering security, privacy, and luxury features, with prices over $10 million.
There is more wealth in New Zealand's mansion market than ever before, but buyers are picky and want large, immaculately finished homes that fulfil specific needs, report agents at the top end of the market.
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A few years ago, vendors could get away with selling a home with a bathroom in need of revamping, but that’s no longer the case, say those dealing in $10 million-plus sales.
Agents say their buyers are looking for turnkey luxury, and even properties built 15 years ago could be considered dated.
Recent sales suggest the top end has been immune to the downturn, with OneRoof and its data partner Valocity identifying 98 sales for $10m-plus since the end of the Covid boom. In the last 12 months alone, there have been 27 settled sales in the category, with two homes selling for $28m each.
OneRoof and Valocity's analysis of $10m-plus sales over the last 10 years found they had more than doubled since 2020. Sales spiked to an all-time high of 35 in 2021, at the height of the market, and have since settled at an average of 31 a year. The amount wealthy buyers spent on mansions in 2024 was 15 times what they spent in 2014 and triple what they spent in 2019.
The bulk of high-end sales were in Auckland, followed by Queenstown, with others trending around beach areas, such as Mt Maunganui in Tauranga and Waiheke island. Remuera is still the favourite spot for mansion-buyers, with Victoria Avenue in the suburb the street with the most $10m-plus sales nationwide, followed by neighbouring Arney Road.
Homes in the $10m-plus category sold on average 60% above RV although most of the big leaps were due to newer luxury homes replacing older structures. The research also identified that certain trophy homes had more pulling power than others: 21 homes sold for $10m-plus more than once, for an average gain of $3.8m.
The biggest gain was $15m for a mansion on Cremorne Street, in Auckland's Herne Bay, while the quickest flip was of a grand villa in neighbouring Hamilton Road, which gained $1m in just four months. Just three properties lost money on their resale, with a former prime minister's home suffering the steepest drop.
New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty agents Patrick McAteer and Suzanne Browne, who have achieved $60 million in unconditional sales so far this year, stated that the market has benefited from increased purchasing activity by the ultra-wealthy, including those from abroad.
“There were some significant global events that triggered people to look at New Zealand,” McAteer said.
He was not pinning all the increased interest on the re-election of Donald Trump as US President, but said more Americans were looking outside of their own country for a second home. Enquiries were also coming from European countries, including Germany and Portugal.
“That is not uncommon where people have one or two homes around the world, but we've probably seen a bit more of an upswing,” he told OneRoof.
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Enquiries had come from those who were aware of New Zealand's restrictions on foreign buyers. Despite the challenges, they were still interested, with some making applications for approval via the Overseas Investment Office.
The agents said there was strong demand for homes offering security and privacy, as well as views and land size. None of these buyers were looking at properties under $10m.
Expats were also active: “We've had success with some very high net worth expats who are coming home,” McAteer said.
Last month, McAteer and Browne sold a multi-million-dollar Edwardian villa on Sentinel Road, in Auckland's Herne Bay, to an expat buyer. And earlier this year, they sold a modern home on Glanville Terrace, in neighbouring Parnell, for $12.5m to an expat who plans to use it only a few months a year.
New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty agents Patrick McAteer and Suzanne Browne have racked up $60m in sales this year. Photo / Fiona Goodall
One of the agents' big sales was of a modern mansion in Parnell. Photo / Supplied
McAteer and Browne believe more high-value homes will hit the market on the back of big sales this year. McAteer said vendors at the top end of the market were unlikely to throw in a car as a sweetener, but sometimes they'd include their furniture and artworks in the sale if the buyer requested.
“Properties at that level are generally pretty nice and have beautiful furniture and beautiful art, so the turnkey is pretty attractive for someone who comes down. They see the property, they go, ‘This is exactly what I want.’”
Browne told OneRoof buyers wanted everything done and no box left unticked: “There can't be a bathroom to be finished or this to be done.”
Offshore buyers, especially, would often say: “Right, we want to be this far from the CBD, we want to have this amount of land, we want to have a swimming pool. There is no compromise. They think it's a buyer's market, so if they have to spend the money, they want it exactly right.”
Bathrooms and kitchens had to be up to date, she added, saying even properties built in 2010 could be considered dated.
Bayleys agent David Rainbow: "I don't think I've ever seen an open home of a property over $10 million." Photo / Fiona Goodall
Bayleys agent David Rainbow has been selling trophy homes in Auckland for over 40 years and he thinks there are four times as many mansions in the city now as there were when he started.
His first big sale, in 1985, was of a property owned by Vinka (bridalwear designer) and David Lucas (winemaker) in Kohimarama. It sold for about $900,000, which was a “huge” amount of money back then.
Rainbow, who has represented many well-known New Zealand families, said that a mansion in the old sense of the word would be a house with five or six bedrooms, a tennis court, a pool, and a games room. That set-up would still be popular today - with the additions of a media room, gym, and wine cellar.
Rainbow says there is a lot more wealth in the country now than there was when he was growing up, when mansions were the preserve of old, established families. Now, a lot of the new money and high-end real estate belongs to names nobody would recognise.
Arney Road, in Remuera, is New Zealand's second most popular street for buyers wanting a $10m-plus mansion. Photo / Chris Tarpey
Rainbow said that back in the days of telephone books, the New Zealand Herald used to run a “houses wanted” ad in the newspaper, which was popular among the upper echelon. Now, no one wants the public to know about their business.
“They want to do it off-market," Rainbow said of the current crop of buyers and sellers. "They don't want people trudging through their house, and they won't do an open home. I don't think I've ever seen an open home of a property over $10 million."
Confidentiality around deals remained an important factor: “Most people don't want their friends to know that they've just gone and spent $20 million.”
Wall Real Estate agents Andrew, Graham and Ollie Wall. The trio have been responsible for some of the biggest house sales in New Zealand. Photo / Fiona Goodall
The former Hotchin mansion, in Auckland's Orakei, fetched $38.5m in 2013. Graham Wall was the agent who sealed the deal. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Not much had changed in Rainbow’s 40 years when it came to closing deals; like anyone in any market, buyers at the upper end wanted to pay as little as possible and sellers wanted to get as much as possible, but people who moved in the upper circles had the advantage of often knowing each other and the house they were buying.
Sometimes sales at the upper end could take a year or two, and money spent on a home was not always made back. Rainbow said a house in Cliff Road, St Heliers, which Newsroom reported as a mortgagee sale in 2023, recently sold again after the buyer’s circumstances changed.
In 2023, it fetched $9m, and at the time of writing was under contract in the early $8ms, even though the owner had spent money doing it up, Rainbow said, noting that buyers often wanted a property simply for its position: “They’ve bought the location.”
Gary Wallace, from Bayleys, recently sold an Epsom estate for over $9m, triple its original price, and told OneRoof his team had sold 20 properties over the last two years for more than $7m.
The top end of the market was strong, he said, highlighting how inexpensive New Zealand's prime homes were compared to those overseas.
Bayley agent Gary Wallace outside a grand mansion on Remuera's Victoria Avenue, which he sold in 2023 for $23.8m. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Buyers tended to wait in the wings until the right property came along, as was the case with the Epsom property he sold. “I'd say over the last couple of years, the buyer probably looked at six or seven properties. He would make an appointment and come and check it out.
“It's a bit like going to the Gucci shop in Newmarket; the shoes are expensive, but you try them on and if you like the look of them and they feel comfortable, you pull the credit card out. It's really a matter of finding the right type of property.”
Wallace said while the foreign buyer ban limited buyers, Asian buyers resident in New Zealand were still prominent at the top end. He said they often sent children to New Zealand for university and the children stayed and became residents, and when older they looked at property.
“If they like it, then mum and dad will fly in from China, and I guess the money gets transferred from China to the kids down here, and the property is secured.”
Graham Wall is another agent to the wealthy, and he and his sons, Ollie and Andrew, of Wall Real Estate, have been responsible for several $20m-plus sales over the years, including Auckland's record of $38.5m for the former Hotchin mansion.
Wall said there were not enough transactions over $15m to say the market was up or down but agreed houses that felt brand new and were meticulously maintained were popular. That wasn’t about money, so much as people not wanting to have to spend time upgrading houses.
“The houses that people used to lust after - buy a great big mansion in Remuera and spend some money tidying it up - they can languish for a very, very long time because they're out of fashion.
Waterfront luxury in Auckland's Herne Bay. Would lifting the foreign buyer ban increase the value of these homes? Photo / Chris Tarpey
“Bring us a brand new, shiny, fantastic house - doesn't matter whether it's $20m or $30m - and we will sell it. There are buyers. There are not just casual buyers. People are waiting for perfection, but it just pops up so rarely.”
Wall expressed frustration at the foreign buyer ban, saying his agency had American buyers who wanted to buy in New Zealand, and he also had some who were going through the formalities of investing a certain amount to be able to buy.
“We do have clients that are in there, and they can't buy a house until the end of that process; they have to wait until it's completed.”
The Walls had recently sold two properties in the $20m-plus category, including one in Ronaki Road in Mission Bay, and another which had a strict NDA precluding them from giving a location or price.
Wall said Non-Disclosure Agreements were on the rise, possibly stemming from a fear “of standing out and looking too rich in a country that frowns on success”.
Transactions over $10m were also taking longer, he said, because there was no urgency in the current market, and deals also took time because potential buyers had to sell their own $10m-plus homes first.
Queenstown agent Hamish Walker, of Walker & Co, sold a grand estate on Lower Shotover Road in 2023 for $45.5m, setting a new house price record for the country. Photo / Supplied
The $45.5m deal for Chantecler was shrouded in secrecy until this early this year. Photo / New Zealand Herald
In Queenstown, Hamish Walker, of Walker & Co, said because of recent (so far unsubstantiated) talk around the possible reversal of the foreign buyer ban, more people had been “quietly flying” into the tourist destination from Auckland and Australia to view properties in anticipation the ban would be changed later in the year.
“They are getting ahead of the game. That would be the biggest change in trend I've noticed probably in the last month or so, and a lot of these people are looking to land bank these high- end properties.”
Walker said around a third of the Queenstown market turned on what Auckland was doing, so strength at the top in Auckland was good for Queenstown.
Walker overtook the coveted Wall Real Estate residential record in 2023 with the sale of Chantecler, a 19ha estate on Lower Shotover Road, for a whopping $45.5m.
While he says he has sold nothing for anything like that price since, people were looking at landbanking properties north of $9m and $10m, and he, too, had seen increased inquiry from Americans.
He knew of “quite a few” people going through the OIO process, most with business backgrounds rather than Hollywood backgrounds.
“The usual shopping list is privacy. They don't want to be surrounded by people. That's why they come to a place like New Zealand, Queenstown, and some of our special spots. They want full privacy.”
1 Motuarohia Island, in Russell, Far North, is attracting the attention of wealthy buyers. Photo / Supplied
Uber-wealthy people were good for communities, Walker said, saying he was aware of a family who had gifted several million dollars for a local project in the area.
“We want these people in the community not only for the community donations but also the networks and the IP they bring - how to make New Zealand a better place.”
At the top of the country, high net worth people were eyeing up another luxury Sotheby's listing, this one on an island in the Bay of Islands.
Ben Macky, owner and director of New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty North Shore and Northland, said would-be buyers of the immaculate retreat home in the mid $8ms on Motuarohia Island, Russell, were also keen on move-in-ready luxury.
This five-bedroom property on 6464sqm had boat access and the current owner had a helicopter, both of which were on the table if the price was right, Macky said.
Wealthy buyers in this bracket were looking for a second home, “a bit of a luxury getaway that’s quite isolated and in a beautiful location” and the furniture was also on offer.
“That luxury market likes a walk in, walk out. They are liking this one because there's an island caretaker so that's really nice, so they know the common ground is really well maintained and they've got access to someone to do maintenance if needed on site.”
A range of buyers were interested, from wealthier younger buyers to older generations looking for a legacy property to hand down, and this part of Northland always had interest from overseas.
Macky also knew of people who were going through the OIO process, saying the area was the jewel in the crown of Northland and home to a lot of high-net-worth people already.
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