Demand still soaring for luxury homes

Multimillionaire developer Ted Manson has sold $16.5 million of the $65 million portfolio of luxury Auckland homes he is building.

Demand for the mansions - which started at a steep $2.6 million - was so strong they were flicked on within just two months.

He is now demolishing or removing older houses throughout the city's leafy suburbs where more homes, collectively worth $48.5 million, have just been built or construction is beginning on them.

Manson, 50, said he had handed over part of his business to two sons, Luke, 25, and Mac, 23. Eldest son Culum is already running Manson's commercial arm, finishing the new $110 million, 30-level Lumley Centre on Shortland St which will open this winter.

Luke Manson started working at the firm aged 18 as a builder's apprentice and became a site manager at 19, in charge of developing a new warehouse in Mt Eden's Burleigh St. He is now in charge of developing seven houses.

Mac Manson began in the business at the age of 19 and is in charge of buying and selling residential properties south of the Harbour Bridge.

"With Culum looking after commercial purchasing, leasing and selling, the three boys have all aspects of the business covered," Ted Manson said. "Together, they make a very strong team."

Manson appeared on last year's NBR Rich List at $150 million and said his company was so rich it did not need to borrow money to finance big deals. He ruled out an NZX presence, saying he has no need for other people's money because his business is so wealthy.

The Parnell-based developer started out in Ponsonby as a house-painter then became a renovator, buying second-hand ovens from fellow developer David Henderson who ran an electrical goods dealership in the area before it was gentrified.

Between December and January, the Mansons sold places at 3 The Rise in St Heliers for $2.85 million, $2.6 million and $2.8 million, 60 Sentinel Rd in Herne Bay for $3 million, 3/575 Riddell Rd in Glendowie for $3.2 million and 147b Victoria Ave in Remuera for $2.13 million.

The new houses, worth $48.5 million, are either on the beach front or sit one property back from the beach.

The top spot is at 14 Gibbons Rd in Takapuna where four houses will be sold for between $3.8 million and $4 million each.

This is near the country's most expensive house, 10 Gibbons Rd, sold by Barry Emma McCollam last year for a record $12.78 million.

Brian Guy of Premium Real Estate in Takapuna said the unprecedented demand for top-end Auckland homes continued to take him by surprise and the agency set new records in January, selling more than a dozen luxury properties for $1 million-plus.

But Real Estate Institute figures indicate a general slowdown in sale volumes nationally. In January, prices fell in four out of 11 regions.