By BERNARD ORSMAN
One of the most spectacular pieces of residential real estate in Auckland, a pohutukawa-lined point in Herne Bay, is for sale for $8 million.
The price includes a neglected 1950s modernist concrete house.
The 4000sq m Sentinel Rd property, with sweeping views up and down Waitemata Harbour and directly
opposite the Chelsea Sugar Works, is just a five-minute drive from downtown Auckland.
It overlooks Sentinel Beach and is next door to a $4 million-plus 1980s white mansion owned by businessman and philanthropist Stephen Fisher.
Ted Manson, whose family-owned company Manson Developments is selling the property, says it is the best piece of real estate in New Zealand.
Mr Manson bought the Sentinel Rd property and two adjoining properties behind it from an Auckland businessman, Bryan Lowndes, for $11.5 million in December last year after eyeing the land for 12 years.
Mr Manson plans to build five luxury townhouses, costing $2 million to $3 million each, on the back two sections and to market the front coastal property here and overseas as one lot. He said he had received three offers on the front property, including $7.5 million from a surgeon. The asking price is $8 million.
Once there was a house to match the land, Mr Manson said, the property would be worth $12 million to $16 million.
Quotable Value has it at $4 million - $3 million for the land and $1 million for the house.
The highest price paid for a house in New Zealand is $10.8 million for Doug Myers' Remuera house and two neighbouring properties last month.
Other top properties to change hands in the past few years include a beachfront Takapuna villa ($8.3 million), merchant banker David Richwhite's house in Remuera Rd ($8 million) and a house at 139 Arney Rd, Remuera ($6.75 million).
Some other grand homes with the potential to nudge $10 million have struggled to sell.
Craig Heatley's Takapuna home has been withdrawn from sale, the Takapuna clifftop home of Bill and Diane Foreman has a pricetag of about $8 million and John and Christine Fernyhough's Remuera Rd mansion has been on the market since last October.
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