Lantern House back on the market
Lantern House, the award-winning luxury lodge on Waiheke Island, is back on the market for sale just three years after it was bought for $8.45 million.
The three-bedroom Asian-influenced retreat at 312A Sea View Road was built by the entrepreneurs who put Waiheke on the world tourism map – hoteliers Andrew Glenn and Jonathan Rutherford Best.
Glenn and Rutherford Best, who founded the popular Oyster Inn restaurant on the island, commissioned architects Nicola and Lance Herbst to design the house and to make the most of the clifftop bush site that looks out over Onetangi Beach and Carey Bay.
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Back in 2022, OneRoof reported that the pair sold the property to a young Kiwi artist.
The Sea View Road house was designed by Herbst Architects and has won architecture and design awards. Photo / Supplied
The ceramics artist and companies associated with her had also bought several other properties on the island, including Te Whau Lodge for $6.47m and Villas Waiheke for $4.7m.
She has chosen agents Graham and Ollie Wall, of Wall Real Estate, to sell Lantern House, which she has run as a high-end accommodation business.
The Walls know the property well as they were the listing agents for Glenn and Rutherford Best when they were selling. They declined to comment on the new campaign when contacted by OneRoof this week.
Lantern House is a stunning home and has been profiled in countless design and architecture magazines. My colleague Catherine Smith wrote about it in 2022. This is what she had to say: “The architects skipped the usual big decks and instead used huge picture windows to frame the view. On the lee-ward side of the house, walls of glass slide open to a courtyard, complete with contemplative pool and circular moon window that frames more views [and, cunningly, also fences the pool].
The Villas Waiheke retreat at 1 Musson Drive, on Waiheke Island, is also on the market for sale. Photo / Supplied
“And, as you’d expect from people who know how to create luxury mood, details like retractable insect screens [‘our James Bond push button moment’, says Rutherford Best], opulent materials of marble, granite, and teak, indoor and outdoor fireplaces mean the house captures the sanctuary mood the pair had hoped for, complete with the open pavilion-living sheltered by the courtyard for outdoor living through most of the year.”
The artist is also selling her Villas Waiheke retreat at 1 Musson Drive, with New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agents Chris Jones and Francine Sweet. It has an RV of $5.4m and is for sale by negotiation. OneRoof reported in November 2023 that she was selling Te Whau Lodge. However, the listing for the property was withdrawn in 2024.
Big sales, little sales
I admit it, I’m a real estate tragic. I spend my time scouring the live auction sites, and seeing as this is real estate’s busy season, there are lots of house sales for me to binge on. Not everything is selling, but clearance rates among the big agencies are ticking up. What’s clear from the results of the past two weeks is that the standout homes are getting standout prices. I noted 12 homes on the block at Bayleys fetched more than $2m (and two of these broke the $5m mark). Capital gain for many of the properties selling under the hammer was in millions – the joy of buying more than 20 years ago. There seemed to be a lot of bidding action going on as well. Bayleys agent Steve Koerber had 10 registered bidders for a home he was selling on Burwood Crescent, in Auckland’s Remuera.
Ten bidders drove the price of this home on Burwood Crescent, in Auckland's Remuera, to almost $3m. Photo / Supplied
I noted action at the bottom end of the market too. A 19sqm leasehold apartment in the Unilodge building on Beach Road, in Auckland Central, fetched $20,000 after 27 bids at a Barfoot & Thompson’s auction last week. Listing agent Alexander Kramarenko told my colleague Diana Clement that the sale was ordered by the high court.
“With the high court sales, often the purchase price doesn’t really reflect the value of the property. Whatever the purchaser pays at the auction excludes the debts [linked to the property] which they also have to pay. And the sale was also plus GST.
“Apartments in the building typically sell for $40,000-$50,000.
“They are small studios with a kitchen and a bathroom – sort of student accommodation. And they also leasehold.”
A studio apartment on Beach Road, in Auckland Central, sold for just $20,000. Photo / Supplied
Kramarenko said such properties usually sold to investors, “and they’re focusing on the cash flow. Often it’s people who understand. Because they are quite complex transactions. And we always make sure that they fully understand what they are buying.”
He added: “The debt was the debt to the body corporate. This was a high court sale, and a high court sale basically means that the body corporates have to lodge the case with the high court. It is striking when you see the $20,000 sale, but there is always a reason why it’s like that.”
Lots of homes to choose from
There are more than 44,000 residential properties for sale on OneRoof right now. Just over 15,000 of those are in Auckland alone. Nationwide new listings volumes so far this year are up 7% annually, but the majority of the fresh stock is coming to market outside of Auckland. Auckland new listings, while up 13% year-on-year in January, were down 9% in February. The rest of New Zealand was up 19% in January and nearly 2% in February. So far news listings volumes for March remain elevated, with Auckland bouncing back after last month’s dip.
So what do the numbers mean? Buyers still have lots of homes to choose from, especially in Auckland. That’s likely to slow price growth for sellers, but as noted above, there are buyers willing to pay top dollar for the right house even in a crowded market.
- Owen Vaughan is editor of OneRoof.co.nz. You can contact him with any property tips or story ideas at [email protected]
