- Big things ahead for the two agents who sold the resort-like estate at Andersons Cove.
- Sarah Dyer only joined Bayleys Real Estate in August, but before that she worked at OneRoof.
- Duncan Ross is the agency’s chief operating officer and had a hand in the sale of Brad Pitt’s West Auckland “crib”.
It’s believed to be New Zealand’s biggest-ever residential property deal, a resort-like waterfront estate at Langs Beach that has reportedly fetched more than $45.5 million. But the listing agents behind the sale – Duncan Ross and Sarah Dyer – are keeping mum.
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Agents involved in some of New Zealand’s highest-profile record-breaking real estate deals say the sale of Andersons Cove is a career-defining one, especially for Dyer, who only became an agent last year and used to be sales manager with OneRoof.
The exact sale price of Andersons Cove has yet to be made public. It was on the market for more than $50m and a report in the New Zealand Herald earlier this month said that an expat had bought the property for a record-breaking amount, exceeding the $45.5m paid for the Chantecler estate near Queenstown in 2023.
Andersons Cove was owned by Kiwi entrepreneur David Nathan, who died at the end of last year, and his wife Pamela. The property hit the open market at the end of April and had a sold sticker on it two weeks before the deadline for offers.
The 48ha estate at Andersons Cove, in Northland, has reportedly been snapped up by an expat. Photo / Supplied
The grand, four-bedroom primary residence at Andersons Cove was designed by acclaimed New Zealand architect Andrew Patterson. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof approached Dyer and Ross for comment on the sale, but other than to confirm that the deal had taken place, they declined to take part in the article.
Ross is the more senior of the two and has a track record of high-profile deals in the rural sector. He has been Bayleys’ chief operating officer since 2019 and has led its rural sales division since 2017.
His Bayleys profile says he oversees the execution of the company’s wider operational and strategic activities, monitors productivity and results and helps facilitate the company’s “altogether better” philosophy.
“Duncan is a proven member of Bayleys’ senior management team, having spearheaded the rural arm of the business from 2017,” the profile says.
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“Under Duncan’s leadership, Bayleys completed rural sales in excess of $4.7 billion over the last three years, reinforcing the company’s position as the number one rural real estate brand in New Zealand.”
The chartered accountant has a background in banking, finance, professional services, business advisory, turnaround management and corporate restructuring.
He recently sold the luxury Muriwai estates created by wellness guru Matt Chapman, which famously hosted Hollywood star Brad Pitt last year, but perhaps his most high-profile deal was the sale of the 300ha Carey Bay on Waiheke Island to rich-lister Bruce Plested for $72m.
Dyer was Ross’ second on Anderson Cove and the agent with the local presence. Her patch extends up to Langs Beach, but she mostly sells in her home town of Mangawhai.
Ross recently sold Parihoa Estate, in the Auckland suburb of Muriwai. The property was home to Brad Pitt when he was filming Heart of the Beast in New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Ross also sold the 300ha Carey Bay estate on Waiheke Island for $72m. Photo / Supplied
She started at Bayleys in August last year and since then has racked up six sales, including Andersons Cove. Her profile says she has “cultivated an award-winning media sales career over 14 years”, mastering the art of the sale, cementing long-held relationships in the real estate industry and expertly delivering sales strategies for real estate businesses.
Before entering real estate as an agent, she was a national sales manager for OneRoof until 2023, and between 2023 and 2025, a sales lead for realestate.co.nz in Northland.
“Expertly connected and a proud local, Sarah offers unrivalled insight into the industry, market and the greater Mangawhai area,” he profile says.
“A firm believer in the sanctity of the home, Sarah invests her house-proud, family-orientated ethos to the role, and the journey of buying and selling a home will be defined by integrity, skill and trust.”
The sale of Andersons Cove is a massive win for both agents.
Hamish Walker, the agent who brokered the $45.5m sale of Chantecler, told OneRoof that closing big deals was challenging work, noting that the groundwork to get the listing often takes place years before the vendor approaches.
Walker and Co founder Hamish Walker: “You’ve always got to put relationships before the deal.” Photo / Supplied
Walker got $45.5m for Chantecler, in Queenstown-Lakes, in 2023. Photo / NZME
“It’s about nurturing the relationship so that people trust you, especially the buyers looking for these types of properties. There’s a lot at stake.”
Walker did not have inside knowledge of the Andersons Cove deal, but thought it was likely both would enjoy a significant payday, even though money should not be the driving force of any transaction. “You’ve always got to put relationships before the deal,” he said.
He also pointed out that real estate agents were in a profession where they did not get paid at all unless their client was happy and the deal made. They only made money if they were successful and added value, and “Sarah and Duncan clearly added value because without them the sale probably wouldn’t have happened or it probably would have happened for $5m or $10 million less”.
“Often when you list these properties you might have an owner who asks you what you think it’s worth and at the end of the day it could be worth a lot more than what the owner thinks because someone with the budget looking for a house at $20m or $30 million can afford a house double that value.”
Clients with those amounts of money were hard to fathom for ordinary New Zealanders. “These people have assets in the several hundred million dollars, and it’s just numbers to them at the end of the day.”
Bayleys agent David Rainbow says big sales can change the course of a real estate career. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Rainbow, right, celebrates making a deal with Scottish rich-lister David Murray, centre, in the 90s. Photo / Supplied by David Rainbow
Rainbow sold Murray’s mansion in Herne Bay for $6.75m in 1995. The house famously hosted Rod Stewart, pictured here with his former partner Rachel Hunter. Photo / Getty Images
Veteran Bayleys agent David Rainbow, who has broken several sales records in his career, says being involved in big deals is exciting and rewarding, career-wise.
“It does help you, and it does give buyers and sellers and potential buyers and sellers confidence to want to deal with somebody who has had that,” he says.
Rainbow recalled the sale that “changed everything” for him; it was in the late 1980s after the share market crash, and he sold the first house in the country to reach $5m, a Frank Lloyd Wright-style waterfront house in Herne Bay bought by Kiwi car dealer Sir Colin Giltrap.
In 1995, he broke the $5m barrier when he sold Waimanu, the resort-like Herne Bay home of David Murray, the then multi-millionaire owner of Glasgow Rangers FC in Scotland. The five-bedroom estate house, which famously hosted Rod Stewart when he was in Auckland in 1992, fetched $6.75m.
Rainbow says that while such sales can bring repeat business and make headlines, smaller deals could be just as satisfying. He recalls with warmth one he made in the early 1980s for a French couple who later became good friends.
Rainbow is selling a vintage apartment in The Pines, in Auckland’s Epsom. Photo / Supplied
They bought a property on Michaels Avenue in Ellerslie with a large section for the princely sum of $35,000. “Of course, in France people don’t own properties, they lease them, so they didn’t have a lot of money. He came out as a piano teacher, and he finished up as a professor of music.
“The first night they moved in there we took a bottle of wine and fish and chips around and sat on his timber floor and just had a fabulous house-warming party.”
Rainbow says that when the house was sold about 10 years ago, it fetched $1.4m and the couple felt like they had won the lotto.
Rainbow is selling a property in The Pines, on Owens Road in Epsom, which he says belonged to the third family to move into the iconic apartment building after it opened in 1971. It boasts the original décor, and the feedback has been in the $3m-plus range. Rainbow says the sale of this property will be just as exciting as the others.
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