- A three-bedroom sub-penthouse at 51 Albert sold for $10.25m.
- The sale was managed by Brendan Goodwin, with strong local and overseas interest.
- The penthouse above is available for $16m, with other luxury apartments also on the market.
It’s not the penthouse, but the three-bedroom apartment on the 40th floor of 51 Albert still managed to nab a towering $10.25 million.
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The sub-penthouse in the luxury apartment block in Auckland’s CBD was sold at the end of last year, with the deal pulled together by prestige agent Brendan Goodwin, of UNIQ by Goodwins.
The sale is one of the highest for an Auckland apartment, although it fell short of the $12m asking price.
Goodwin told OneRoof the 366sqm pad was snapped up by a local buyer, although there had been strong interest from overseas.
The three-bedroom apartment has stunning views of the city and was kitted out with luxury features. Photo / Supplied
The $250m 41-level 51 Albert was developed by Melbourne firm 94 Feet and opened in 2024. Photo / Jason Oxenham
He said his family’s luxury rental company, Goodwins, was originally engaged by 51 Albert’s developers, Melbourne-based Ninety-Four Feet, to find tenants for the $250m tower’s unsold apartments before he was asked to handle the sales as well.
He said the penthouse apartment on the floor above was still available for $16m, and that another sub-penthouse, on level 39, was looking for $12m. Four other apartments on lower floors are priced between $1.2m and $2.45m.
51 Albert opened in 2024 and features apartments on the upper floors, as well as a luxury hotel, Hotel Indigo, located below. The ground floor sports a 100-seat cocktail bar and an award-winning French-style restaurant, Bistro Saine.
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He said that while the luxury top-floor apartments had not been rented, he estimated the penthouse would rent out for $10,000 a week and the sub-penthouse for $3000 to $4000. Lower-floor apartments are asking $1000 to $2000 a week.
“It has amazing views. [51 Albert] is an exceptional property,” he said.
“I have been fortunate to go through a number of city apartments, and in my opinion, [the penthouse] is the most stunning.”
Goodwin said his family’s rental business had traditionally helped overseas buyers negotiate the New Zealand property market, and he was now acting as buyer’s agent for those clients, introducing them to lawyers and tax advisors, and even helping them to buy cars or boats.
The penthouse at 51 Albert is still looking for a buyer, with an asking price of $16m. Photo / Supplied
He said clients from America and Australia were in the country this summer looking at properties, mostly as second or third homes, rather than their permanent base. UNIQ specialises in listing properties worth over the $5m threshold for foreign buyers, which owners can then rent out through Goodwins.
“Some of these people I am dealing with are going through multiple AIP visa programmes around the world,” he said of the Active Investor Plus visa, which the Government introduced last year and has tweaked to allow holders the right to buy a New Zealand property worth $5m or more.
“They call it a ‘planting the flag’ strategy: they want the freedom to move across the globe,” Goodwin said.
Buyers looking for high-rise luxury in New Zealand have plenty of options.
The top floors of New Zealand's tallest residential towers, The Pacifica, right, and The Seascape, left, are for sale. Photo / Michael Craig
Still up for grabs are the penthouses in the country’s tallest apartment towers. The top floor of The Pacifica, at 10 Commerce Street, in Auckland CBD, has a $17m price tag, while the penthouses at the Seascape next door are looking for buyers with upwards of $9.5m to spend.
Bayleys head of projects Gavin Lloyd said overseas interest in The Pacifica’s fully fitted-out three-bedroom penthouse had picked up since the Government announced it was relaxing the foreign buyer rules.
“Last year was very tough, so that pathway opened things up,” he said of the AIP visa.
Bayleys is also marketing apartments in the Seascape. The two-floor penthouse, which was originally listed at $24m, is still on the market for sale. However, last August, a spokeswoman for the development told OneRoof that the apartment was under contract.
Outside of Auckland CBD, buyers can find luxury at One Saint Stephens. The penthouse there has an asking price of $15.25m. Photo / Supplied
She said that the final sale price depended on whether the buyer went with the customised fit-out or specified their own design.
The spokeswoman confirmed last week that it was still under contract.
Also up for grabs in the city are two luxury penthouses at One Saint Stephens, in Parnell, next to the city’s Anglican cathedral. They are priced at $8.25m and $15.25m.
And in Orakei, near blue-chip Paritai Drive, the boutique 22 Karori, at 22 Karori Crescent, is looking for buyers with up to $12m to spend for its sub-penthouse. The penthouse sold a year ago for a record $17m in an off-market deal.
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