- A stressed investor is selling six Auckland leasehold apartments for $1.8 million, down from $4.2 million.
- The owner, under financial pressure, urgently needs to sell the two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments.
- The apartments, with high rental demand, return $800 to $850 weekly and are popular as Airbnbs.
A stressed investor is offloading his entire investment portfolio for less than half the price he paid for it almost 20 years ago.
Start your property search
The six leasehold apartments in Auckland’s Viaduct can be purchased either separately for $339,000 each or for a bulk discounted rate of $1.8m – a far cry from the $4.2m that the vendor paid for them in 2007.
City Sales sales manager Scott Dunn said the out-of-town owner was under financial pressure and needed his portfolio of two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments on Pakenham Street urgently sold, even if it meant taking a massive hit.
“He’s losing money,” Dunn told OneRoof.
The two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments rent out for between $800 and $850 a week. Photo / Supplied
He bought 11 apartments off the plan for $7.975m (working out to around $725,000 each) in 2007 and has slowly been selling them off one by one. He now wants the remaining six gone.
The six apartments - GC, GB, 1C, 1D, 3B and 3D at 11 Pakenham Street - are in neighbouring complexes overlooking an exclusive park with a swimming pool.
Dunn said it was not uncommon for leasehold apartments in that area to sell for less than their original sale price because prices had been trending downward.
- Coromandel mystery: Why beachfront properties in this town are selling for half the price
- Cooks Beach revival: Waterfront Lockwood with $3m RV for sale for first time in 30 years
- ‘You should all move down here’: What you can get for $739K in NZ’s cheapest city
Dunn said the apartments were extremely competitively priced, pointing to recent sales such as 3A/24 Market Place, which sold for $630,000 in June 2025 and 2B/28 Market Place, which sold for $635,000 in July 2025. Others in the area were currently listed for sale in the $400,000s, he said.
“We would consider these pretty irresistible prices.”
The ground rent was reviewed every seven years, with the apartments currently undergoing a review. For example, the ground rent for 1D/11 Pakenham St is $12,800 plus $10,900 for body corporate fees and $2,909.18 for council rates.
However, Dunn said apartments in this area had high rental demand, currently returning between $800 and $850 a week, and were some of the nicest leaseholds available. They also made popular Airbnbs, he said.
The apartments could suit people looking for an Auckland bolthole or seasoned investors looking to add to their rental portfolios. Photo / Supplied
“These are some beautiful apartments that if they were freehold would be around the $1m mark,” he said. “In council terms, if this were a freehold property, it would be worth $930,000.”
While a lot of people struggled to get finance on a leasehold apartment, Dunn said the likely buyer was someone who wanted to add to their rental portfolio or an out-of-towner who wanted their own base in Auckland’s CBD.
“In the city market, a lot of what we sell is leasehold, and the reason it can work for people is that it can offer some of the most fabulous locations and amazing properties for a fraction of the price of what it would be freehold.”
People frequently visiting the city for business often wanted a place of their own where they could leave their clothes rather than changing hotel rooms every time, he added.
