- An American couple purchased a Waiheke Island estate for over $12m, brokered by Lisa Hopewell.
- The property, with 360-degree ocean views, operated as a luxury lodge charging up to $1235 a night.
- Overseas buyers are aware of Waiheke’s real estate restrictions, with interest from locals and expat Kiwis.
US buyers paid over $12 million for a private coastal estate on Waiheke Island at the end of last year, OneRoof can reveal.
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The four-bedroom luxury lodge on a 1.52ha section on Delamore Drive, in Oneroa, had been quietly on the international market for several years with an RV of $9.15m.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty listing agent Lisa Hopewell, who brokered the deal, described the purchase as “significant”.
The property, which sits on the island’s exclusive Matiatia Estate, had been operating as a high-end lodge that charged guests up to $1235 a night.
It has a swimming pool, cocktail lounge, gym/massage room and library, and its ridge-top position overlooking a private sandy beach gives it 360-degree views of the ocean and city.
The American buyers got residency to qualify to buy the property on Delamore Drive. Photo / Supplied
This European-style house on Nick Johnstone Drive on the island was recently snapped up by a Canadian buyer. Photo / Supplied
“It was a lovely property and a significant sale,” Hopewell told OneRoof. “The vendor is very happy, the purchasers are delighted. We’re all happy.”
Hopewell’s colleague Pene Milne, who brought the buyers to the Delamore Drive property, said the American couple “just loved Waiheke”.
“They knew that this was the community and lifestyle for them. They wanted to be close to infrastructure and still be able to enjoy what Auckland had to offer,” she said.
“Of all the places in the world, this is where they would choose to be.”
Milne said that overseas buyers were smart about prices in New Zealand. “They take the process very seriously. They want to know where the values typically sit, and they want data.
“It is the old story, the people who have the money know how to look after it.”
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Hopewell noted that foreign buyers were also aware of the restrictions around real estate on Waiheke Island.
Most of the high-end coastal homes are deemed sensitive and fall outside the new foreign buyer rules, which from March 6 will allow holders of the Active Investor Plus visa to buy a residential property in New Zealand worth $5m or more.
Hopewell said she had two similar-sized properties for sale on the island – a luxury lodge at Omaru Bay, for $17.5m, and a six-bedroom house at 345 Gordons Road for $9m – and buyer interest had mainly come from locals and expat Kiwis.
OneRoof data shows a swag of high-end sales on Waiheke in the last six months.
In October, a Cape Cod-inspired coastal residence on Gordons Road fetched $11.35m in a deal brokered by Bayleys agent Mana Tahapehi. The sale was more than $2m above the RV.
Just before Christmas, NZ Sotheby’s agents Chris Jones and Francine Sweet sold a four-bedroom French provincial-style house on Nick Johnstone Drive to a Canadian buyer. The property had an asking price of $8.995m, well below its $11.9m RV, but Jones declined to comment on the sale price.
A renovated villa on Sea View Road, in Waiheke's Onetangi, was bought by a local buyer. Photo / Supplied
He did say that the buyer intended to do a full renovation of the property, which has an olive grove, orchard, greenhouse and swimming pool. “The position is fantastic; it is an amazing house. The new owner is going to be investing a fair bit,” Jones said, adding that the buyer had been qualified by the Overseas Investment Office.
Jones and Sweet also sold a smartly renovated Victorian villa on Sea View Road, in Onetangi, for $3.66m, this time to a local who had always loved the house. The three-bedroom villa, luxuriously renovated in 2021, sits on a 9000sqm section with a swimming pool and poolhouse.
Jones and Hopewell both said that vendors on the island were more realistic about price. “There is a lot of stock on the market, so buyers have a lot of choice,” Jones said.
Hopewell added: “We all realised there was a contraction of value after that red-hot period. Vendors are probably in line now, and purchasers are market savvy,” she said.
Jones and Sweet have just listed a 5.46ha waterfront estate at 739 Orapiu Road, in Orapiu. The property, which boasts a refurbished home, a cottage, boat sheds and mooring, has an RV of $7.45m, but Jones said it was hard to say where the price might land when it goes to auction on March 14.
Kellands agent Martin Dobson, who has one of the island’s priciest properties on his books, developer Ben Cook’s luxurious three-bedroom place on the water at 159 The Strand, in Onetangi, told OneRoof that while there had been the usual influx of summer buyers to Waiheke, they were slow to move as they took time to do their homework.
“You don’t have 100 people looking to spend that sort of money straight away, that’s for sure.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale on Waiheke Island
