A burger mogul’s multimillion-dollar “rock-star” pad, a “problem property” listed at $1 reserve, and the homes of not one but two celebrity sweetheart couples got buyers excited this year.
A Kiwi hubby’s Italian mega mansion built for his wife topped the list, alongside the homes of The Bachelor New Zealand’s Art and Matilda Green and Love It or List It NZ’s Alex Walls.
A dilapidated villa that sold for over $1 million and a holiday home on Waiheke Island that two teens bought in the 1960s also featured on the top 10 listings buyers clicked on the most in 2025.
The majority of OneRoof’s most-viewed homes of 2025 were properties in Auckland, with one in Hamilton and another in Wellington, and all listings have a price tag of above a million.
Start your property search
Seven of the 10 homes have sold while the others are still waiting to be snapped up, with one home having been on the property market for more than two years.
No.1 | Foster Road, Temple View, Hamilton
An Italian-style mega-mansion built on the outskirts of Hamilton was the most-viewed listing on OneRoof this year.
Harcourts listing agent Sandra Treloar said the home had received plenty of interest but had since been taken off the market.
The mansion on Foster Road, in Temple View, Hamilton, has been taken off the market. Photo / Supplied
The property, which has an RV of $2.29m and hit the market in August, was built more than 20 years ago by a Kiwi bloke for his Japanese wife.
He couldn’t realise her dream of a life in Italy, so he brought a slice of Italy to her instead, and commissioned a five-bedroom, four-bathroom home with terracotta roof tiles, curved windows, and multiple balconies and columns on 2.14ha of farmland in Temple View.
The couple sold their dream home in 2007 to the current owners, who have been running it as a boutique bed and breakfast.
No.2 | Island Bay Road, Beach Haven, Auckland
Love It or List It NZ’s Alex Wall and her husband Corban sold their passion project under the hammer in September for $3.35m - double the RV.
Harcourts listing agent Ben Gibson told OneRoof it was no surprise the Walls’ home attracted so much interest.
“It’s a pretty special home. You don’t often get two really talented people like that joining forces. It was like Batwoman and Batman had decided to build their dream home, and they did.”
Gibson said the pair - who won the third season of The Block NZ in 2014 - were experts in their respective fields.
Alex and Corban Walls’ trophy home on Island Bay Road, in Beach Haven, Auckland, fetched a top price at auction. Photo / Supplied
The Walls started work on their Beach Haven wonder soon after winning The Block NZ. Photo / Supplied
“Corban doesn’t do anything by halves. We had people coming through saying they had never seen engineering in a residential building quite like it, and Alex has got this amazing eye for interior design.”
OneRoof reported that Gibson and fellow listing agent Debs Wallace had to cancel the third week of open homes due to overcrowding.
Gibson told OneRoof at the time that he was caught off-guard by the more than 150 people who turned up to the first viewings. “By the second weekend, we must have had 180 people. My phone ran out of battery; there were so many people signing in,” he said.
“Some people were waiting half an hour. It was 10 people in, 10 people out at one point. We had to stop doing open homes after that. We could not get everyone through.”
Gibson said that three of the four bidders who registered for the auction put up their hands, including one phoning in from Dubai.
No.3 | Lilburn Street, Warkworth, Auckland
The Bachelor NZ stars Art and Matilda Green sold their four-bedroom home for $1.26m in May, but not before it attracted a heap of buyer interest.
Bayleys listing agent Heather Walton said the home’s character and personality, as well as the “celebrity component”, had helped.
“People were keen to see where Art and Matilda lived, and we made no secret of the fact that they were selling it.”
Art and Matilda Green’s villa on Lilburn Street, in Warkworth, sold in May for $1.261m, nearly $600,000 above RV. Photo / Supplied
Walton said the couple went to great lengths to make sure their home was presented well on the market, with “no expenses spared”.
“It’s a beautiful home. Character homes are very charming and homely, with lots of personality and people love them,” she told OneRoof.
The reality TV stars’ four-bedroom villa on Lilburn Street, in Warkworth, on Auckland’s northern fringe, attracted six registered bidders.
The Greens bought the house together in 2018 for $750,000, before the market in Warkworth rocketed. Photo / Getty Images
Matilda told OneRoof just after the sale that it was a bittersweet moment. “It feels great that it’s done now. It was equal parts wonderful and a relief," she said.
The couple and their three children are moving to a lifestyle property just outside of Warkworth. “It’ll be a scary week or two moving, but then we’re settled and it’s all finished,” Matilda said.
She added: “It just feels nice that we sold to wonderful people. I think the buyer will be really happy there.”
No. 4 | Church Street, Onehunga, Auckland
A dilapidated green villa next to the Dress Smart shopping mall sold for $1.2m at auction in September, just two months after a land-banker had bought it for $992,000.
The two-bedroom Church Street property is surrounded by high concrete walls and resembles the house in the blockbuster Pixar movie Up.
Bayleys listing agent Jock Kooger told OneRoof that the property had attracted plenty of interest due to the “interesting” location and set-up of the property, and the fact it had been listed twice.
The green villa on Church Street, in Auckland’s Onehunga, is a familiar sight to Dress Smart shoppers. Photo / Supplied
“The place was a complete original do-up, and the house was what it was.”
Kooger said the new buyers were happy with their purchase and were keeping tight-lipped on what they planned to do with the property, although OneRoof can report the green paint has been replaced with a fresh white coat.
The property first hit the market at the start of the year as an estate sale following the death of the previous owner, Joy McHardie. She had held onto the villa for 60 years and had seen in recent decades the rise of commercial buildings, including Dress Smart’s carpark, around it.
The Church Street villa is the last remaining house in what is now a commercial area. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof previously reported that McHardie had rebuffed multiple offers from developers for at least 30 years. She moved to the villa at 118 Church Street with her family in the 1950s and watched as the old cottages around her were removed one by one as the strip was rezoned for commercial buildings.
The arrival of Dress Smart in 1995 saw her home overshadowed by the mall’s parking zone, but she clung on until moving into a rest home in 2016. Her family eventually decided to sell the house this year.
No.5 | 6 Arabella Lane, Snells Beach, Auckland
Burger Fuel founder Chris Mason listed his four-bedroom Snells Beach bach in May.
The property features three pods, a heated infinity pool and bespoke detailing. It was being marketed alongside his 1968 Classic Torino.
Di Balich, of Precision Real Estate, told OneRoof the multimillion-dollar home was still on the market.
Burger Fuel founder Chris Mason is selling his bespoke bach, 6 Arabella Road, in Snells Beach. Photo / Supplied
“I can’t believe we haven’t sold it yet,” she said. “It’s a rock star house.”
Balich said the property was still attracting plenty of interest but they were still searching for the right buyer who was willing to pay upwards of $4m.
“It’s an exciting house to be in. What struck me is it is so different from a lot of other homes on the market and offers an insight into a lifestyle we all aspire to.
“It’s a dream home for a buyer that wants it all. You can be anywhere in the world when you’re there and enjoy all the privacy and freedom.”
The 1968 Classic Torino that comes with the house was used in Burger Fuel’s American launch. Photo / Supplied
Mason and his wife Caro built the bach to showcase the capabilities of the new property development company. Design and consents took six months, while the build took around two years.
Mason was philosophical about the time and cost blow-outs, when he talked to OneRoof in May. "A bit like on Grand Designs. I reckon it’s great fun at the start, it’s an absolute nightmare in the middle, and then like two months from the end, it’s good again,” he said.
No.6 | Marine Parade, Herne Bay, Auckland
Rich-lister property developer Kurt Gibbons found a buyer for his waterfront wonder in April.
OneRoof asked Bayleys listing agent Edward Pack if the mansion had broken New Zealand’s $45.5m house price record, but he declined to disclose the sale price.
Gibbons bought the five-bedroom property more than four years ago for $23.5m and commissioned architects Fearon Hay to help renovate it. The luxury waterfront home includes a pool and a tennis court.
Rich-lister property developer Kurt Gibbons sold his waterfront Herne Bay mansion earlier this year, but the sale price is still under wraps. Photo / Supplied
The living spaces are stylish and modern. They occupy the ground floor with the sleeping quarters on the top floor. Photo / Fiona Goodall
OneRoof got a tour of Gibbons’ five-bedroom home when it first hit the market in June last year. The money and luxury touches were on full display inside.
Gibbons wouldn’t reveal the final cost of the build, which included earthworks on the cliff-front to make a level surface for the tennis court, but he admitted that it was “much, much more” than the $8m he had planned to spend.
“These [builds] cost a fortune. I’m in the industry and even I couldn’t stick to budget,” he said, adding, “It’s done up pretty good, eh?”
The New Zealand Herald’s Society Insider reported at the end of October that the buyer was low-key multi-millionaire Simon Butler, an old boy of Auckland’s Sacred Heart College.
No.7 | Armoy Drive, East Tamaki, Auckland
You can get an Auckland house with a pool and a tennis court for less than $40m, though.
A two-bedroom South Auckland townhouse boasting those very amenities sold for around $669,000 in August after strong interest from buyers.
Ray White listing agent Monica Subritzky said it was all about location, location, location with this property, with buyers attracted to its proximity to nearby Botany Town Centre and Botany College.
A two-bedroom townhouse in Auckland’s Botany Palms was bought by a retired couple looking to expand their investment portfolio. Photo / Supplied
“It was a good all-rounder property for buyers across the board. The new owners are very happy with their investment.”
The house in the 153-unit Botany Palms complex has access to a pool, a tennis court, and a gym.
No.8 | Palm Road, Palm Beach, Auckland
A bach in the Waiheke suburb of Palm Beach, bought by two teenagers for £100 in the 1960s, attracted a lot of attention at the start of the year.
When the property first hit the market in February, OneRoof reported that good friends Ray and Irene invested all of their savings into buying a slice of real estate on the now-expensive island.
Ray was 15 when he bought the 996sqm plot of land with 17-year-old Irene.
The teens had met in the late 1950s after Ray’s father, William, took Irene under his wing to keep her from going off the rails. Irene’s parents had split, leaving her Onehunga-based mother with seven children and no income.
As well as keeping an eye on young Irene, and helping her mother out with food, William offered to take the teenager on a holiday with his own family to Waiheke. While out walking on that trip, William spotted the section for sale at 16 Palm Road and said: “You kids should buy that.”
Ray and Irene Grunby spent countless family holidays at their bach on Palm Road, in Palm Beach. Photo / Supplied
“In February 1960 when we came back to Waiheke, Ray’s father took us into the lawyer and we paid 95 pounds and 11 pence for the section and the lawyer’s fee,” Irene told OneRoof earlier this year.
From then on, both Ray and Irene saved all they could and would go over to Waiheke on the weekends, where they slowly built their dream bach, with help from Ray’s brother, cousin and father.
Ray and Irene weren’t even a couple when they bought the land. Their romance blossomed after and they only became a married couple when they were in their mid-20s.
The property passed in at auction but was sold a month later for $753,000, according to OneRoof records. OneRoof reached out to Bayleys agent Neill Clarke for comment, but he had not replied at the time of writing.
No.9 | Bank Road, Northland, Wellington
A Wellington vendor sold his "hassle" three-bedroom home for $312,000 after taking a gamble on $1 reserve in June. The sale price was almost $400,000 below the property’s RV of $710,000, but the buyers were there in full force on auction day.
Ray White listing agent Matt Ross said it was the “busiest ever” auction in Wellington City.
The home had become a bit of a “problem property” for the owner, who was desperate to sell, so it was decided to list it with a $1 reserve.
The three-bedroom family home on Bank Road, in Northland, Wellington, made history in the capital. Photo / Supplied
Ross said they received more than 120 inquiries across the two-week marketing campaign, and there were 15 people in the auction room with seven phone bidders.
“It was because of the supreme coverage. We had enquiries from all over, including Tauranga, Auckland, and Christchurch.”
Ross said the buyer had bought the property for his son and planned to do it up. “The buyer was very happy, and in the end, the client felt like he had won the Lottery.”
No.10 | The Strand, Onetangi, Auckland
Rich-lister property developer Ben Cook sold his Herne Bay mansion for $35m in September.
Cook has been busily selling off his New Zealand assets after making the move overseas, but still up for grabs is his Waiheke Island bach.
The beachfront stunner at 159 The Strand, in Onetangi, first hit the market in 2023, and is now for sale by negotiation with Kellands agents Martin Dobson and Charles Collins.
Ben Cook’s bach on Waiheke Island is for sale. Photo / Supplied
The three-bedroom holiday home, which has an RV of $10.4m, comes with a bar, a lift, and a ramp to the beach.
Cook told the Herald that his move away from New Zealand was for a variety of reasons: “It’s a mix of things: business, family and lifestyle. I love New Zealand. I think it’s the best place in the world for lifestyle and outdoors.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale
