Biggest deals of 1H25 eclipsed 2H24, new research showed; an event selling units in 56-level $300m Seascape tower; a big sale was recorded in Hastings; Tainui are active and iwi blessed two buildings – all in today’s Property Insider.
This year’s largest non-residential New Zealand real estate transaction where a price was declared was Goodman Property Trust’s $252.7 million sale of part of its Highbrook Business Park to fund manager Mercer.
Zoltan Moricz, executive director and research head at CBRE in Auckland, released the latest investment transaction monitor this month.
That listed sales in the year’s first half where the price was made public.
“The largest transaction happened in the industrial market, where fund manager Mercer bought a stake in the Goodman Property Trust-owned Highbrook Business Park in East Tāmaki for $252.7m,” CBRE’s 1H25 transaction monitor said.
Highbrook is a $2.1 billion asset owned by Goodman Property Trust. It has taken 20 years to develop and is now complete.
The business park is on the former Fisher land, owned by the family of Fisher & Paykel fame, where they had their Ra Ora horse stud but now Steel & Tube, NZ Post, DHL, Ford, Panasonic, Cottonsoft, BMW, Schneider Electric and OfficeMax are some of 130-plus Highbrook tenants.
In late May, Goodman said it had sold 28% of Highbrook to ASX-listed Goodman Group, headed by Greg Goodman and Australian-headquartered funds manager Mercer, for a total of $580m.
Only the Mercer component of the Highbrook sale was featured by CBRE because that fund manager is a non-related party.
Precinct Properties’ $180m sale of the InterContinental Hotel Auckland to Singapore stock exchange-listed Hotel Properties was the second-largest.
Canadian fund CPPIB selling the Manukau Supa Centa to Willis Bond-owned Property Income Fund for $161m was this year’s third-largest sale.
Fourth was the sale of 169 Bush Rd, also by Goodman Property Trust, this time for $89m, followed by Tainui Group Holdings’ $82m deal on the Ruakura Superhub with Canada’s Brookfield.
The latest data contrasted with CBRE’s top 10 list of 2H24 non-residential New Zealand sales where prices were declared.
That showed the largest deal in the second half of last year was the $66.5m Drury South Crossing sale.
Calder Stewart Development sold a Drury property on Jack Stevenson Rd to industrial wholesale investment specialist FortHill Property Fund.
This was the sale of an industrial property under construction by Calder Stewart. FortHill’s purchase is of the developed or finished asset. FortHill has associations with the vendor.
Calder Stewart is a long-term developer from the South Island, where it has an extensive Christchurch portfolio.
CBRE said this month that property companies were the most active vendors in the $20m+ category in this year’s first half.
In total transaction values, managed funds bought 41% of properties.
“In 1H25, New Zealand’s total value of commercial investment transactions focused on the main centres, totalling almost $1.86b, with 82 sales. This was similar to the transaction volume registered in 2H24 and is 50% above 1H24,” CBRE said.
People close to the under-construction, 221-unit, $300m Seascape gathered at an event this month in what was called a “pre-launch” by sales chief Jillie Clarke.
Representatives of development business Shundi Customs, architects Peddlethorp, replacement builder Icon Construction and sales agency Bayleys attended on September 3.
They gathered around a scale model of the tower.
Activity at the tower is suddenly ramping up again, after nearly a year of no work.
The superstructure is up but is yet to be fully clad.
The developer held the pre-launch event in premises at 69 Customs St East, where it is based in the old White Rabbit premises.
Speakers presented on behalf of Shundi, new builder Icon, which is replacing China Construction, Bayleys and architects Peddlethorp.
Jillie Clarke, Shundi’s director of sales and marketing, said before the event that 55 units were unsold on levels eight to 20 and levels 41 to 45.
Food served was a table of premium cheese, meats and crackers.
The top-level penthouse, which takes up the entire 51st floor, has been sold, she said.
Although the tower is 56 levels high, apartments have been built on only 51 of those floors.
Shundi has not yet announced that Icon has signed the contract to take over finishing the block.
But it did say last month that the tower’s structural integrity had been confirmed.
A day later, a Shundi Customs spokesman said it was not Icon that had confirmed the building’s integrity. Instead, that had been done by others, including engineers Mott MacDonald.
Danny Blair of Colliers Hawke’s Bay and Taupō announced the sale of a Hastings cool store for $26.4m.
The store is about 16,000sq m of net lettable area on three freehold titles on a 3.53ha site.
It is fully let to Mr Apple New Zealand, the country’s largest integrated grower, packer and exporter of apples, Blair said.
A new 15-year lease starts on settlement, “delivering a secure, long-term net annual rental”, he said.
Tainui Group Holdings has begun development of a new industrial gases depot on a 9000sq m site in the Ruakura Superhub.
It appointed Hamilton-based Foster Construction to build the gas storage and loading facilities, workshop, office, carparks and head landscaping.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has been busy at two sites in Tāmaki Makaurau this month.
The first last Wednesday was at the former Central Post Office, where Peter Cooper’s Cooper and Company unveiled a $30m upgrade and restoration.
The second was with Precinct Properties’ newly-named Flex business, opening Pipiri Lane on Beaumont St in the Wynyard Quarter.
Precinct Flex said last week it welcomed the iwi on site early in the morning at Pipiri Lane to lead a blessing marking the opening of the building.
Pipiri Lane is the newest addition to Precinct’s office portfolio and is New Zealand’s first cross-laminated timber work and event space, the company said.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.