KEY POINTS:
To many New Zealanders, a quarter-acre means a big section and a hard slog with the lawnmower.
But to property tycoon David Henderson, it is the size of his inner-city penthouse.
He has put his waterfront property up for sale in what is expected to be one of
this year's most spectacular deals.
Mr Henderson owns the top floor of Shed 21, the Princes Wharf block where the 166-room Hilton Hotel is spread over seven floors.
His Kitchener Group developed the six wharf "sheds" but Mr Henderson kept the best part for himself.
He got Leuschke Group Architects to design an apartment with a big "wow" factor, perched at the top of the most northern waterfront block, looking towards the harbour bridge and North Shore.
Mr Henderson said he was selling because his four children were grown-up and the place was too big for one person.
He plans to spend more time at his Potts Point apartment in inner Sydney. He will buy again in Auckland, although when he returns he will stay in a two-bedroom Princes Wharf apartment he owns on level five of Shed 20.
"It's been a fabulous place to live in but I'm rattling around in there these days, so it's time for someone else to move in and enjoy it," he said.
The northern tip of the unit houses the largest of five living areas and finishes in a prow-shaped deck.
A teenagers' wing at the city end has its own decks, kitchen, suite of bedrooms and snooker room.
The apartment has 1061sq m of internal floor space and decks of 416sq m.
Fiona Mackenzie of Kellands said the apartment was the largest in the country and today she will begin marketing with the logo "I own this city". She is expecting offers well over its capital value of $5.3 million. The place could sell for more than $10 million but prospective buyers were told of the deal only yesterday.
Kellands is marketing the penthouse in Australia, Britain, the United States, Dubai and Asia.
The buyer will not only need a fair wad of cash - he or she will also need to be mega-rich to keep it because it costs more than $140,000 in annual outgoings. Mr Henderson pays $11,576 rates to Auckland City, $2789.06 to the Auckland Regional Council and $130,000 in ground rent, to be reviewed in 2010.
His apartment has gas fireplaces in every lounge and a dressing room with 14 separate clothes-hanging sections and 31 shoe shelves, each storing more than five pairs of shoes.
Two years ago the developer was caught up in the so-called "celebrity drug ring". He was convicted and given a suspended sentence for trying to buy cocaine.
Luxury penthouses are going for top prices. The level-30 penthouse of the Sentinel at Takapuna is expected to fetch more than $10 million.
Australia's most expensive apartment is a 795sq m, $19.5 million penthouse in the Gold Coast's 77-storey Soul Tower. In Sydney, owners of a harbourside home have rejected offers of more than A$50 million ($55 million).
And in the US a house called The Pinnacle is going on the market at US$155 million ($222 million). The Montana house will have a heated driveway and a ski lift that can be boarded inside the house.