- A central Auckland penthouse priced over $11 million has attracted local and international interest.
- Developer Mark Todd says presales for the Kubrick, a 52-unit block in Freemans Bay, are strong.
- The building features extensive amenities, with apartments ranging from $1 million to $6 million.
A central Auckland penthouse apartment being offered off the plan for upwards of $11m has attracted interest from both New Zealand and US buyers, says developer Mark Todd.
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While the apartment market is struggling overall, Todd says presales in his latest Ockham venture, the Kubrick, are doing well.
The Kubrick, named after legendary director Stanley Kubrick, of 2001 and Eyes Wide Shut fame, is a colourful 52-unit apartment block in Freemans Bay, due for completion in 2029.
The penthouse will take up the whole top floor of the building, and will have about 730sq metres of single-level living, including a "green" roof.
Todd, himself, lives in the penthouse apartment of the Greenhouse, an Ockham building in Ponsonby, and says he uses his "green" roof like a big backyard.
The colourful Kubrick apartment development is setting a new bar for full-service living. It is due for completion in 2029. Photo / Supplied
The view from the penthouse will take in much of Auckland city. Photo / Supplied
Ockham's Mark Todd: "The Kubrick’s a feminine building. We want it to be lively. I just think the culture needs a bit more liveliness, playfulness." Photo / Michael Craig
“It's literally soil on the roof. I grow grass and flowers. I've got basically a big flower garden. I've got a 450sqm backyard with flowers growing – a green roof is exactly that.”
The Kubrick link is that building will, according to the marketing, carry "that same spirit of precision, detail and daring use of colour" that the director was famous for. The imagery on the development website is certainly evocative of his ground-breaking sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey.
While the $11m-plus price tag for Kubrick penthouse is a lot, it is not unheard of, Todd says, with a penthouse apartment at 308 Remuera Road, in Auckland's Remuera, selling under the hammer for over $12m in 2022.
He says the Kubrick penthouse will be in the most forward-looking, full-service, full-amenity apartment building to be launched in Auckland in a generation.
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The development will offer 600sqm of common facilities, including a full residents’ lounge, a covered outdoor pool, a private bar, gym, private cinema and professional work-from-home office spaces.
“So there's a range of reasons why it's that price, and it's not unheard of, but it is a full-floor penthouse,” Todd says.
The concept of the building was “a flower in the city”, inspired by the hydrangeas of Ponsonby and Freemans Bay. “That’s the colour quadrants - periwinkle, light blue, bright pink and lavender.
“The Kubrick’s a feminine building. We want it to be lively. I just think the culture needs a bit more liveliness, playfulness, pretty things, beautiful things and the whole concept is a flower in the city.”
The apartment interiors are clean and sharp. Photo / Supplied
Director Stanley Kurbick is the inspiration for Ockham's latest Auckland apartment block. Photo / Getty Images
The building will be surrounded by park grounds and, unlike other apartment buildings, has a serious commitment to common space and facilities, Todd says.
“Apartment buildings need that over time. If you don't share commons, then you're really living in some modified version of terraced housing.”
The penthouse aside, apartments in the Kubrick range in price from $1m to $6m, and so far there have been six sales and three more reservations, making up a large part of the 17 presale statistics for the last quarter in Auckland, Todd says.
“Ockham Group has achieved a third of those presales, which is pretty good.”
He says presales should be about 400 units per quarter, but over the last four years, it has averaged only 11 or 12.
Not helping Auckland’s struggling apartment market is the uncertainty rocking the global economy. “People are very unsure of their futures, and when you're doing larger apartment buildings, which aren't completed for two or three years, that's looking to the future, and most people are unsure of what their futures look like.”
A scene from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The design of the building shares some of the aesthetics of the film. Photo / Getty Images
The Kubrick's common space has a futuristic vibe. Photo / Supplied
Baby boomers looking to downsize aren't sure what they'll be able to sell their house for in three years, and the middle class is worried about interest rates and job security.
“There’s also quite a lot of uncertainty around AI. I think that is a big part of middle-class fears - job security. That's not helping people who sell stuff that's not built yet.”
While Auckland has seen a lot of terrace housing in recent years, which has in turn brought down prices, affordability is still an issue, with mortgages costing six or seven times people’s income.
That was a modern economy problem, rather than an Auckland one, and interlaced with issues around technology, taxation and wealth distribution, Todd says.
Kiwis needed to realise New Zealand was looked on with envy by people in America and Europe, Todd says. “Everyone's struggling with cost of living, everyone's got concerns about their health and education system, but it's the same if you're living in London or Berlin or North America or Australia.
“Everyone is struggling with unaffordability and concerns about public services and how they pay for them - there are global political issues that really do position Australasia at the top of the pops in many respects.”
The penthouse at the Kubrick is being marketed by Lisa Redgrove of Ockham Residential, whose listing describes a luminous, private sanctuary floating nine levels above the heart of Freemans Bay.
“It’s on a unique site, bordered only by the gorgeous Harry Dansey Reserve to the north and west, the Freemans Bay Community Centre, Anglesea Street, and Pratt Street, offering a sense of privacy and connection to nature unusual in an inner-city suburb.”
- 801/8 Pratt Street, Freemans Bay, Auckland, is for sale, price on application
