Still dirt cheap

Top-dollar waterfront property in Auckland offers value for money when we see what Sydney-siders are having to pay for a glimpse of the harbour, says VICKI HOLDER.

Auckland waterfront property may have turned to gold in the last five years, but it's still dirt cheap compared to Sydney.

Agents predict an exponential rise in prices of waterfront property in Auckland over the next few years as demand for the limited number of dwellings continues to grow.

With Auckland's highest sale to date being the $14 million property on four titles in Mellons Bay (made last year by Barfoot & Thompson's Leila MacDonald), Sydney's highest residential sale stands at a whopping AUS$28.7 million with the sale of Altona at Point Piper early last year. Boomerang at Elizabeth Bay ranks second, which fetched AUS$20.7 million in 2002.

Brian Guy, of Premium Real Estate, says the highest price paid on the North Shore is $8.3 million for a property with more than an acre of prime land on Takapuna Beach. He hopes to beat that when he brings the neighbouring property to the market for $11 million.

While Auckland prices seem huge, Guy estimates prime waterfront property in Sydney to be about two or three times higher than here, making ours seem extremely good value in comparison. "One of the most prominent sites on the waterfront at Sentinel Point in Herne Bay has just sold for $7 million. That's nothing like the sort of money you're seeing in Sydney," he says.

Kellands hopes to sell the Foreman home at 9 Clifton Rd, Takapuna, for around $12.5 million. Deborah Kelland reckons the recently refurbished home is "the best value in town" for land at $2000 per sq m valued at $8.5 million and 930 sq m of house at $4 million.

This year, Sydney's top 200 house sales range from $14.75 million on the Vaucluse waterfront to $3.4 million at Longueville. Not surprisingly, waterfront houses made up the bulk of the top 200 sales. One of these was actor Russell Crowe's $14.1 million 1000sq m Woolloomooloo apartment at Finger Wharf. Crowe combined three apartments in a restored wharf building surrounded by hotels and restaurants. Part of the sale was funded by the sale of his Elizabeth Bay home, which he sold for $11.5 million, which he bought from the Murdoch family two years earlier for $9.2 million.

Apartments in Auckland don't fetch anything near what Crowe paid. An Auckland businessman recently bought the most expensive waterfront apartment so far at Lighter Quay - three penthouse apartments joined together - for more than $4.5 million.

Yet, Bayleys' Rachel Dovey is marketing 373sq m, four-bedroom, penthouse apartments in this elegant contemporary development - complete with heated swimming pool, gym and private marina - for a mere snip at $3,350,000.

Paul Barnao, of Barfoot & Thompson, says valuers Seagar & Partners recently supplied a comparative valuation for Auckland property and found the highest price per square metre in Auckland was an apartment at The Point, on the Viaduct, which came out at $18,000 per sq m. Generally, Auckland's luxury apartments sell for around $10,000 per sq m, whereas in Sydney they go for around twice that amount.

Before the Lighter Quay sale, Barnao negotiated the biggest apartment sale for a home in St Stephens Ave, Parnell, for $4.1 million.

Fiona McKenzie, of Kellands, has sold penthouse apartments at Princes Wharf for more than $3 million, but she says anything over $3 million is a rarity in Auckland.

Linda Galbraith, of Belle Property, is selling one of the finest waterfront apartments at Shed 23 in the Viaduct Harbour for $2.5 million, which she says would go for three or four times that amount in Sydney. "New Zealand is still well behind the Sydney market. Those people coming in from offshore realise it. There's a house in Crescent Rd, Parnell, that sold for $3.5 million two years ago, which is coming back to the market with an expectation of $7 million. In Sydney you'd be talking in excess of AUS$15 million. That gives you some idea of where we should be."

Ken Jacobs, of Sydney's Prestige Homes, marketing under the Christies umbrella, hardly sells anything under AUS$3 million in the central Sydney area now. He sold Russell Crowe his apartment and also negotiated the Boomerang sale. This year he sold an apartment in La Corniche at McMahons Point overlooking the Opera House for AUS$8.45 million. The same owner later bought another property above it for AUS$6.25 million to make the two apartments into one home.

Moving down the scale, a one-bedroom apartment at Lighter Quay for $430,000 seems good buying compared with a similar apartment in central Sydney. Scene Two, in Customs St, Auckland, has a 112.84sq m penthouse for $604,000 and three-bedroom apartments for $540,000. You'd be lucky to get anything on Pyrmont's Darling Island for less than $1 million. At Ikon, overlooking the harbour in central Sydney's Macleay St, the one-bedroom apartments start at AUS$600,000.

Jeff Cate, manager of Barfoot & Thompson, Remuera, points out that Sydney has a lot more well-constructed, high-rise, waterfront apartments than Auckland, which have been built in the past 20 years. "Our apartment market is very limited by the way the council has set up the heritage zoning around the waterfront with a 12m height restriction. We don't have the stock or the client base. But we get a surprise every time someone buys an apartment. They rock out the door. Our prices will keep going up because of the limited waterfront area in Auckland."