The penthouse and second-floor apartment in the Sonata building, in Auckland's St Heliers, are on the market.
You can be Dame Trelise Cooper’s neighbour for more than $6 million.
Two luxury pads in the apartment block that counts the celebrated fashion designer as one of its residents have hit the market.
The two-bedroom penthouse suite of the Sonata, on Devore St, in Auckland’s St Heliers, is priced at $6.495m, while a slightly larger apartment on the floor below Cooper’s pad is looking for between $8m and $9m.
Cooper and her husband, Jack, paid more than $10m for their three-bedroom apartment in 2022, but put it on the market just months after moving in 2024.
They told OneRoof at the time that they were selling to spend more time overseas with family. At one point, they were willing to take $8.95m for the property, but earlier this year they decided to withdraw the listing.
Although there has been chatter that it is still quietly on the market, Dame Trelise confirmed to OneRoof this week that the apartment was not for sale.
Bayleys listing agents Murray Wallace and Sarah Liu are selling the two-bedroom penthouse at the Sonata. Their listing on OneRoof urges buyers to ignore the RV of $7.25m, and notes that it will be sold.
One of the vendors told OneRoof that she and her husband had bought the penthouse off the plan after selling their family land at 20 Devore St to Sonata’s developer, Reside. She said they were selling up as they moved to a different stage of their lives.
She raved up about the penthouse, telling OneRoof: “We get stunning views of the Harbour Bridge, to One Tree Hill, from the front to the back. The shops are 50 metres away. It is open, airy, sunny and spacious, so you don’t feel confined.”
Three floors down, New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Jason Gaddes is selling 201/20 Devore Street on behalf of the developer. The apartment, one of five in the boutique block, has never been lived in and was attracting “hot” interest from foreign buyers.
“They just want to be able to lock and leave and not have to worry about maintenance and all that sort of stuff. They’re from the US, China and the Middle East,” he said, noting that many had $10m budgets.
Gaddes said high-end apartments had been selling quietly off-market all winter, telling OneRoof that he sold five for between $1m and $5m-plus. “Vendors can hang on for every last dollar, or they can get on with life. These places all sold above RV. They were not bargain-basement discount deals.”
Bayleys head of insights Chris Farhi told OneRoof that buyers at the upper end of the apartment market could afford to be picky.
“Some of these boutique buildings do sell really quickly where the developer has nailed the design. But the challenge is there are a lot of substitutions: if you are spending $5m to $10m, people have a range of options for single-level living, or townhouses that have lifts, as well as apartments.”
Farhi noted that many potential buyers had large family homes to sell first, and did not have the confidence to list right now, despite recent improvements in the housing market.
“They might be surprised at how easy it is to sell now if they still have the perception of the conditions over the past two years.
“The market is in a pretty neutral state. We’re not seeing the same super-strong conditions we saw in 2021, but it is a good starting point.”
He said specialist developers were getting ready to pounce, with some already marketing new off-the-plan projects that would not be ready to settle until 2027. “They have the confidence because they’re so tuned to that market.”
The most recent sale in the Sonata building was in early 2024, when Barfoot & Thompson agent Paul Neshausen and Ray White’s Ross Hawkins sold the ground-floor garden apartment for $8.2m. It went back on the market at the end of that year, looking for about $8.6m, before being withdrawn this year. However, the Bayleys agent marketing the property, Carol Cong, told OneRoof that the owner “could still be a seller”.
Neshausen told OneRoof this week that there was “still a lot of education required for Kiwis in apartment living. That evolution happened some time ago overseas.”
Those who thought that downsizing from a sprawling family home to a luxury apartment would leave them with money in the bank were often surprised by prices. “Apartments sell at a per-square-metre rate, and that’s been a challenge. That luxury apartment might mean you’re spending more than you’ve got for the family house, and that’s a barrier at that age and stage in life.
“It’s taken time for those buyers to reposition and then re-enter the market with some confidence.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Auckland on OneRoof.co.nz