Six luxury apartments at the top of New Zealand's tallest residential tower have already been reserved by buyers, OneRoof can reveal.
Agents marketing the remaining penthouse suites in the soon-to-be completed Seascape, on Customs Street East, in central Auckland, declined to say what the apartments will eventually sell for due to client confidentiality.
However, it is understood that one of the apartments reserved includes the top, two-storey penthouse, which had been on the market with an asking price of $24m. A sale at $24m would make it the most the country's expensive apartment.
Agents told OneRoof that buyers could still pick up one of the nine Seascape penthouses, with prices ranging from $9.14 million to $16.86m.
Start your property search
The 187-metre high-Seascape on Auckland’s Customs Street will be nine metres taller than the current record-holder, the neighbouring Pacifica tower.
The new marketing push for the Seascape penthouses comes as the price of the super-penthouse at the Pacifica was slashed by $6m to $30m.
An artist's impression on one of the penthouse apartments in the Seascape. Photo / Supplied
The upper floors of the building all have north-facing views and glass-wrapped indoor/outdoor space. Photo / Supplied
Gavin Lloyd, New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty managing director for projects, told OneRoof that some 30% of the Seascape's apartments had already been sold, mostly to overseas-based Chinese (the project has Overseas Investment Office exemption to sell to overseas buyers).
He expected the market for the tower to split between overseas-based New Zealanders - there are some one million scattered around the world - and foreign purchasers connected through the company's international offices.
"With Covid not much happened, although the building is rising really quickly - we're now at Level 28," he said, adding a display apartment will open later this year in the building.
"This helps remove the mystery of buying off-the plan. It's a much better experience, to see it all interior decorated and presented."
An artist's impression of the Seascape's grand lobby. Photo / Supplied
The developer, China-based development firm Shundi Group is leading the project, with support from China Construction New Zealand. New Zealand architects Peddle Thorpe designed the tower, retaining a heritage corner building and adding a three-storey glass atrium separating the main building from a new boutique hotel and a double-height lobby the width of the building from Custom Street East to Gore Street Lane.
Resident facilities will include a “Sky Garden” on level 37, pool and fitness rooms on Level 7, as well as room management, housekeeping and concierge services, and there is charging for electric vehicles in the garage.
Lloyd, and his co-listing agent for the Seascape, Scarlett Wood, are well versed in brokering international deals.
The Pacifica tower next to the Seascape. The price of the tower's super-penthouse has been reduced. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Wood, who recently completed a deal for one of her New Zealand clients to buy a US$10m apartment in Manhattan, said that Sotheby's structure meant that she and agents in the New York office could work smoothly together to present the client with a shortlist of properties before she flew into the city to complete the deal.
Lloyd and Wood are also marketing the penthouse apartments at 51 Albert, which are now being offered as single floors for $11m and $13m, or as a super two-level penthouse for around $24m. Wood said the office was fielding a lot of interest from Singaporean buyers as the borders open up.
