Icon took over the tower at the end of last month. What now? Will Shundi ever start its Tāmaki village? Navy housing is being built, real estate agents’ compensation ruling draws more comment and SkyCity’s fortunes are examined – all in this week’s Property Insider.
Work is resuming on Auckland’s $300 million, 56-level Seascape apartment tower on Customs St West after developer Shundi Customs last month appointed Icon to finish it.
Following China Construction’s departure over a $30m+ claim, an Icon spokesman said it was now in charge of the high-rise.
Icon had officially taken over on April 30.
“While we remain in the early phase, we continue to make progress,” the spokesman, based in Australia, said.
“We are moving quickly to establish our team for the project.”
In coming weeks, the builder will progress set-up and mobilisation activities while also undertaking a review of the site as part of the due diligence process.
“We are continuing commercial negotiations with Shundi and are on track to resume full construction works in the third quarter. As we work collaboratively with Shundi on the negotiations, we are committed to keeping stakeholders updated,” the spokesman said.
Those in the sector said that under the new contract, Shundi sought to pay subcontractors directly.
That would mean Icon only has a management contract and would only be paid a fee for that. Such an arrangement would mean it would have far less power than if the builder was in charge of paying everyone on the site.
Dan Bosher of Icon said: “While we’re in this transitional period, Icon has been engaged on a construction management basis with Shundi directly paying subcontractors.”
One construction high-rise specialist has estimated it could cost $250m to $300m to finish the tower but neither Shundi nor Icon has commented on that.
Meanwhile, what of Shundi’s plans elsewhere in Auckland?
Little seems to be happening, despite its big purchase and big plans years ago.
Now, we hear Shundi is being approached over its $70m Tāmaki Park City plans, spelled out in a sponsored-content New Zealand Herald article as being a new suburb where up to 5000 people would live after a 15-year build.
Shundi doesn’t do small, it seems.
In 2016, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, then vice-chancellor of the University of Auckland, said it had agreed to sell its Tāmaki Campus to a local property investment company.
Shundi bought the 11ha site at 261 Morrin Rd, St Johns. That site had been called the Tāmaki Innovation Campus.
Frank Xu, Shundi’s deputy general manager and executive project manager, was quoted in the 2022 sponsored-content article as saying Te Tauoma would rise on the land.
One developer said recently that people in the sector were shocked at Shundi’s purchase price on the land, said to be $70m, but unconfirmed.
“We thought they paid too much for it at the time, now it looks cheap.”
However, he also noted that each unit would now draw a far stiffer council development contribution than it would have if Shundi had built the project then. Instead of paying around $25,000 a unit, a developer would now be charged around $120,000/unit, he said.
The Environmental Protection Authority’s website showed the 2020 plans for Tāmaki Park City: 1500 homes, 1394 car parks and 3140sq m commercial.
Developer Shundi Tamaki Village, planners Tattico, PB&A Architects, Mott MacDonald and Native by Nature had their names on those documents five years ago.
Property records indicate 261 Morrin Rd remains in Shundi Tāmaki Village ownership. A mortgage is shown on the title, registered to the New Zealand branch of China Construction Bank Corporation.
Construction of stage one was to start in October 2023 and be finished by 2025, Shundi said in the 2022 Herald article.
Last month, the Royal New Zealand Navy Te Taua Moana announced construction would begin soon on 61 new townhouses for its personnel.
Deputy chief of Navy Commodore Karl Woodhead said the lease agreement with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei would be good for sailors.
The hapū’s commercial arm would build the homes, lease them to the New Zealand Defence Force and manage ongoing maintenance.
A hāpu spokeswoman said this month that the homes would be built on two sites close to each other on Roberts Ave, Bayswater.
Precision Construction won the contract. Surveying and underground service relocation is under way. Consent documents are being prepared for above-ground work. Engineering approvals have been obtained for earthworks and services, the spokeswoman said in a statement.
“At the completion of construction, the estimated value of the homes is $73m.”
The Real Estate Authority has stressed the importance of a case involving a Blenheim property sale that resulted in two licensees being ordered to pay compensation.
Steward McLean and Clayton Knowles were ordered to pay $35,000 after a $73,000 loss on that sale.
Authority chief executive Belinda Moffat said this was the first substantive decision on the exercise of the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal’s power to award compensation in the real estate regulatory system.
The Herald has already reported that the tribunal, Ray White and a barrister said it was an unusual case.
Moffat noted amendments made to the act, effective from October 2019, to enable the tribunal to make orders for compensation up to $100,000.
These can also allow a complaints assessment committee, in certain circumstances, to make an order referring a matter to the Disciplinary Tribunal for it to consider whether to make a compensation order.
“It reflects the consumer protection focus of the complaints and discipline framework. The case illustrates, however, that compensation claims require that there is a sufficient connection between the loss claimed and the contravening conduct,” Moffat said.
“The case highlights the responsibilities on real estate licensees to ensure that the contractual documentation is correct and the importance of legal and accounting advice on complex issues such as tax and GST.”
Andy Bowley and Paul Laxton Koraua, Forsyth Barr analysts, have indicated luck is not on SkyCity’s side.
Last week, the company delivered its third FY25 downgrade, now expecting underlying ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) to be around 4% below its previous range of $225m to $245m, they noted in a May 7 research note.
This implies second-half 2025 ebitda of $103m, -12% below their prior expectations and the lowest half-year ebitda the group has delivered in over a decade, excluding Covid-impacted periods.
“The downgrade was both cyclical and structural in nature, the former reflected in lower average spend per visitor at the Auckland precinct, the latter shown through a reduction in visitation and spend by VIP gaming customers at the Adelaide casino, due to the uplift in SkyCity’s anti-money laundering and harm minimisation processes,” they wrote.
They also cited more structural issues coming.
The introduction of mandatory carded play and the South Australian Government review decision due at the end of this month are included in those.
“We continue to view the risk/reward as unattractive,” the analysts said, putting an “underperform” on the stock.
Chief executive officer Jason Walbridge said last week: “The difficult market conditions that businesses like ours – which are reliant on discretionary consumer spending – are experiencing continue to have a significant impact on both our revenue and earnings.”
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
Agent gets early morning call about deceased estate.