Affluent buyers down to earth

Auckland's Paritai Drive is high-end real estate; Gary Lane sold his property there two years ago for $11.5 million. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Rich Lister Gary Lane wants more than $10 million for a piece of land once donated to the people of Auckland - and estate agents say someone will cough up the cash just to have their own building site.

The 2,000sq m grandstand site in Auckland's millionaire's row, Paritai Drive, was home to Lane's golf-putting course, sculptures and his two dogs during the 90s when he lived in a large home he built next door.

Lane sold his Paritai Drive home for $11.5 million two years ago. Now the businessman, who made his $200 million fortune from investments, food company Hansells and health products company Healtheries, is also selling the site next door.

High-end real estate agents are confident it will sell, so another high roller can design and build their own dream home.

Architect Simon Carnachan, who has designed an array of expensive homes around Auckland, said a large, newly built home was a way of "showing the world you've got the money and you're not afraid to flaunt it. Success in New Zealand seems to be judged by wealth rather than anything else."

Building high-end homes is still relatively cheap in New Zealand - about $700 to $800 a square foot compared with up to $5700 per square foot for expensive houses in England, Carnachan said.

The recession meant it was a good time to build because tenders came in at comparatively low prices.

Building the "family compound" had become increasingly popular with clients wanting separate guest spaces for extended family and grandchildren, he said.

Graham Wall, of Graham Wall Real Estate, said good building sites carried a premium and were sometimes easier to sell than a similar site with a house on it. Last year Wall sold two vacant sites in Remuera's Burwood Crescent for $8 million and $9 million and new houses are being built on both.

By comparison, an architecturally designed home in the same street with the same views is on the market for about $7 million.

A 2,000sq m clifftop site in Hanene St, St Heliers, about to come on the market is expected to fetch $10 million. Neighbours have already set the benchmark, with businessman Michael Reid paying $11 million for two adjoining sections further along Hanene St where he is building a new home.

Last year Wall sold two clifftop sections on Parnell's Crescent Rd for about $10 million each and the owners are building new homes on the sites.

A 4,800sq m site on the edge of the Orakei Basin is under contract for $5 million, according to Bayleys estate agent David Rainbow.

The owner, businessman and developer Gary McNabb, had extensive plans drawn up by architect Brent Hulena for a five-bedroom, multi-level home when he decided to sell the land instead.

Wall said the well-heeled were keen to put their own stamp on a property by building their own home.

"Other than red wine and cathedrals, there is hardly anything else on earth that isn't better when it's new. There is only one way to get exactly what you want and that's to build it."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY