- Max Key sold an Auckland villa for $2.845m to expats after two price drops.
- The property faced challenges due to market conditions and the design preferences of local buyers.
- Key is launching new projects and creating Key Interiors to focus on high-spec developments.
Sir John Key’s property developer son has found buyers for the Auckland villa he renovated with his mum.
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The four-bedroom home that Max Key and Lady Key turned into a stunning city pad was snapped up by an expat couple for $2.845 million just five days after they first saw it.
The house on St Michaels Avenue, in Point Chevalier, hit the market in May, and Key told OneRoof that the project had been a lesson in timing the property market.
Key bought the land the villa sits on in late 2020 as a development project, paying just over $3m at auction for the 875sqm site.
The former Prime Minister’s son initially planned to put three villas on the property but the 2021 Covid lockdowns derailed his plans, and he was forced to scale back the development to just two villas, one of which he listed for sale.
The house was raised, a ground floor was added and the home was completely rebuilt to a high standard. Photo / Supplied
The property has an upmarket main kitchen area, and an outdoor kitchen with barbecue. Photo / Supplied
Max and his father, former Prime Minister Sir John Key. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
“Mum and I designed the whole thing, we both really love doing interiors,” Key told OneRoof in May.
There was a lot of interest in the house but no serious buyers, and after two price drops, Key was all set to change tack again.
“We’d got to the point where we were about to rent it out, we had two or three families lined up. And then literally that day, out of nowhere, we got a really great offer,” he told OneRoof this week.
“We thought we could just build a nice house in a nice area and it would sell really easily. I didn’t realise how fussy people get when it’s more of a buyer’s market.”
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He said, as a developer, he was happy to take the cash and move on, even though the house would no doubt fetch a lot more once the market improved.
“Me and Dad were talking about it. We think the buyers will be sitting in the house thinking they have bought really well here,” he said, adding that the quality of the villa’s build passed the buyers’ due diligence with flying colours.
Bayleys listing agent Jackson Tariau, who marketed the property with David Simons and Jennifer Munns, told OneRoof that the deal was done very quickly.
Lady Key, with husband Sir John in 2016. She worked with son Max on the villa. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The Point Chevalier villas during the build. Photo / Jason Oxenham
A fire-damaged house in Auckland’s Parnell is Key’s next big project. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The buyers were expats returning from London and had put in an offer at the asking price. “They were just back in New Zealand; they moved on it. They had one look, said ‘Yep, we’re interested’, and came back for one final look before they made the offer. It was sold in five working days.”
Tariau added: “I think it is the third highest sale price in Point Chevalier this year. There has not been an overly big demand in the suburb for homes at that price level,” he said, adding that over 60 groups had viewed the property.
OneRoof figures show just one settled sale in the suburb for over $3m, compared to 13 over $3m last year, one at $4.6m.
Tariau noted that while the property had a luxury finish, it was on a 368sqm section with only a courtyard for outdoor living. That aspect had put off local buyers, who were looking for more backyard.
Key said the feedback was helpful for future projects. “The kitchen was on the second floor, and that put Point Chev market off because they wanted to see the kids. At the start of the process, I thought, ‘Well, even though it’s not ground-floor living, it’s got nice indoor-outdoor flow, and is so beautiful people will want to buy it.'
“But they were saying, ‘It is prettier, it is better built, but functionally the s****ier house down the road serves our purpose better,” he said.
“If we had built this house in Westmere, people would have absolutely bitten off our arms to get it. The buyers in Point Chev are slightly different, and I did not quite understand the nuance.”
Key said that as the development market quietened this year, he tapped contacts to create Key Interiors with interior designer Suzanne Allan.
“It is a good way to turn cash over and keep the staff busy. We are being a bit of a disruptor in the market and getting a few big jobs. I am just so much more efficient, and we have everything in-house, including a painting company,” he said.
The company is about to start the renovation of the fire-damaged villa Key bought for just over $1.3m two years ago in Parnell. Key is tweaking the configuration to appeal to Parnell’s wealthy downsizer market, putting in two high-spec bedrooms rather than squeezing in a third or fourth bedroom, and is aiming for $2m-$3m when it hits the market early next year.
He said his Stonewood Key development company with John and Michael Chow will be starting on two new projects early next year: six duplexes in St Heliers and a nine-house project in Glen Innes aimed at entry-level buyers.
“We want to move away from mass scale to do really high spec. You can see in this market the amount of developer stock that has not sold because it was not built nicely,” he told OneRoof.
“I want to be able to drive past stuff that we built and be really proud of it.”
He added: “It’s tough, but in a weird way I’m really grateful for everything that’s come out of this year.”
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