Auckland's amazing apartment boom: Who's behind it?

New study out on Auckland apartment players. Photo / Greg Bowker

The businesses behind thousands of new Auckland CBD and suburban apartments have been identified in a new study.

John Polkinghorne, an associate director of Auckland property consultants RCG, compiled the list of businesses for web site Greater Auckland and said the projects were "solving Auckland's housing crisis", with almost 6000 new units and terraced residences in Auckland finished since 2012.

"But it's still not enough to meet Auckland's population growth," Polkinghorne said.

Robert Holden's Conrad Properties is by far the biggest developer.

"They have almost twice as many apartments completed, under construction or being marketed as the number two, the University of Auckland. Lily Nelson is in at number three. That's the company behind Sugartree, a three-building complex launched in the darkest depths of 2012 and still being completed. One building is finished, the second one is just about finished, and the third started construction earlier in the year," Polkinghorne said.

Around 7600 new apartments and townhouses are under construction and a further 3300 new units are being marketed.

However, none of this includes retirement village units or apartments, he said, as those had not been included in his survey.

The busiest Auckland apartment builder is Kalmar, followed by Hawkins and Dominion.

"These names and the others on the list are all commercial construction companies - they've always been involved in commercial construction, such as offices, shopping centres or hotels, which tends to be on a different scale than house building," Polkinghorne said.

Leuschke Group and Paul Brown & Architects both specialised heavily in apartments in recent years and they emerged as the busiest architects in the field.

Many other companies on the list are major architecture firms.

"Ockham Residential is an interesting exception - they're an apartment developer that also designs their own buildings, what economists call 'vertically integrated'. The major retirement villages often do this too, and in fact Ryman and Summerset are their own developers, builders and architects," Polkinghorne said.

Last month, a top researcher said Auckland's construction surge would result in 1216 new apartments worth more than $600 million being built this year in the CBD, the highest number this decade.

Zoltan Moricz, senior director and head of research at real estate agents and consultants CBRE New Zealand, said 343 new units had already been completed this year in the heart of the city, not counting suburban projects. A further 873 CBD units were under construction and due to be finished this year, he said. That gives a total of 1216 new units, his data showed.

In 2012 and 2014, not a single apartment was completed in Auckland. Yet last year, the number jumped to 794 new units finished across a number of new city blocks.
Moricz said although current numbers were high, he was confident there would not be an oversupply which could leave new units unsold