- A waterfront section in Westmere sold for $11.2m, over double its RV.
- The property includes plans for a home by architect David Ponting, now under construction.
- Agent Cristina Casares predicts it will be one of Auckland’s finest, with views from every room.
One of the last empty waterfront sections in the wealthy Auckland suburb of Westmere sold last month for $11.2 million – more than double its RV of $4.475m.
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The block of land on West End Road was sold with plans for a trophy home designed by award-winning architect David Ponting.
Work has now started on the house, which Bayleys listing agent Cristina Casares tips will be one of Auckland’s finest.
The vendor had the house plans drawn up by Ponting and while his plans to live in the new-build changed, he still planned to finish the house for the new owner.
Ponting’s design makes the most of the water and the view. Photo / Supplied
The vendor changed his plans but is carrying out the build for the property’s new owner. Photo / Supplied
A profile of the property published by OneRoof last year highlighted how the waterfront home would be built on 1092sqm of land overlooking Coxs Bay.
The vendor was a long-time admirer of Ponting’s work, and had enlisted the architect to create a private residence with strong architectural form, worthy of the extraordinary setting.
The five bedrooms were on the top floor, with the ground floor reserved for the living spaces, which flowed out to the pool, spa and sweeping flat lawns.
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The design meant almost every room would share an equal view of the water. Ponting told OneRoof last year that the inspiration always came back to nature, and that the home was a homage to the harbour.
“It would have been insane to do anything other than engage with that and do so in such a way that you feel could reach out and touch the water and feel completely immersed in that context.”
He added: “It’s almost like a sound shell in form – the upper layer rests on this very strong concrete spine, which points east-west.”
Another Westmere home designed by Ponting recently sold for $28m. Photo / Ted Baghurst
Ponting is no stranger to Westmere trophy homes. One of his architectural stunners, designed more than a decade ago for former Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell and his entrepreneur wife Sharon Hunter, recently made headlines when it sold for $28m.
Casares could say little about the West End Road, but she told OneRoof: “I think it’s going to be one of the most beautiful houses in Auckland.
“The really nice thing about it is that it’s actually wide, so every single room has a view. A lot of the waterfront properties are really long, so you only get the view from the front of the house, or like the back of the house, but the good thing about this house is it’s pretty much you have a view from every single room.”
Casares said she had another Westmere property on her books, which also had designs for a new house. “The owner is also the builder/developer, and he’s offering to build it for whoever wants to buy it,” she said.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Paul Neshausen says the spec build market has cooled. Photo / Fiona Goodall
“It’s an interesting proposition because some people want to have a brand new house, but they don’t have all the building expertise. So, if the owner has that, then it sort of works out well.”
Barfoot & Thompson St Heliers agent Paul Neshausen told OneRoof that the spec home market for the top end of town was a little subdued, though he knows of spec houses being built in Kohimarama and Glendowie in the $3m range.
“There are a few builds that are about to start and some that are about to finish.”
Developers were a little wary, however, because of the marketplace and geopolitical situation, he said: “They are wary because buyers are wary and they sense that.”
Houses that had not sold fed into the value chain later on, he said.
“If you look at rest homes at the moment, they’re all struggling to sell their units because potential buyers can’t sell their houses.
“That’s all that sort of noise in the marketplace that makes developers a little twitchy and go, ‘We've got some land but we’re not going to start developing yet, we’re just going to hold’.”
The spec houses Neshausen is involved with are standalone homes. He wouldn’t encourage terrace houses unless they were a big development.
“Those big developments, like 50 terraces, they’re all good, they’re selling down, but I think those developers who are buying 800sqm sites and putting six terraces on there – there’s a plethora of them.”
Spec homes at the higher end took a while to sell in the current market, he said. “There are only so many people with $10m-plus around looking to splash out at the moment.
“There’s so much going on. It’s midwinter, everyone’s hunkered down. I expect sentiment to change in spring, but I think anyone making wise financial decisions at the moment is saying, ‘Unless it’s pricing we are very comfortable with timing-wise, we’re going to do nothing’.”
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