The listing for the large estate at 8 Wood Lane, in Fendalton, has been updated with an asking price of $9.75 million, which, if sold at this level, would break the city’s current $8m record held by a property on Wairarapa Tce, in Merivale.
The expansive five-bedroom, five-bathroom property, which is owned by well-known retired builder Bill Horncastle and his wife Mrrietta, first hit the market in October last year priced by deadline treaty. It was later changed to price by negotiation and now has a fixed price.
Harcourts listing agent Cameron Bailey, who has previously described it as the best house on the best site on the best street, said they had received a lot of market feedback about the price over the last four months including two written offers close to the list price.
“We are just trying to show people what will buy it and we can back that up by the offers that we have had and we weren’t a long way apart,” he said.
“If it’s got no price on it and it’s a big property like that, there’s always a lot of talk around what the owners want and we wanted to show the market the truth ... now we are showing the market what they want and what the feedback has been.”
Bailey said not only were people getting an exceptional house, but it was underpinned by such a large piece of land, which he previously described as being your own private botanical gardens.
“It’s 3300sqm of land – people need to remember the basic principles of real estate is that land goes up in value and houses depreciate so the more land you’ve got the better property it is.” The property has an RV of $8.34m.
The second highest list price for a Christchurch home currently for sale on OneRoof drops to $3.99m for a four-bedroom, three-bathroom Hamptons-style house at 254 Old Tai Tapu Road, in Kennedy’s Bush.
Bayleys salesperson Adam Heazlewood, who specialises in high-end properties, said he couldn’t think of one property he had put a high asking price on.
“I’ve definitely done $3m [list prices], but I don’t think I’ve done a $4m-plus.”
Most of the houses that he had sold between $4m and $8m were priced by negotiation.
“A lot of the times those are viewing by appointment and I’d rather have a conversation with someone opposed to them making up their own mind without getting that opportunity.”
Heazlewood said he would put a price on a property if there was “a lot of talk and chat that may not necessarily paint the right picture”.
It’s also why a luxury three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in the Riverside Apartments in Merivale has a list price of $2.65m because it had been previously listed with a different agency and the price expectation had been higher. It’s also the highest fixed price out of the properties he’s currently selling.
Nationally, the highest ever list price was for a two-storey penthouse apartment at the top of The Pacifica, in Auckland CBD, which had a price tag of $42.8m, in 2022. The property had been on the market for four years before the vendor decided to split it into three smaller, separate apartments.
While the highest price tag for a five-bedroom, four-bathroom estate currently for sale on OneRoof goes to a super bach at 340H Pahoia Road, Whakamarama in the Bay of Plenty, which has a list price of $20m.
“The market knows where it needs to be and whether they can afford it or not. There’s so much property advertised with by negotiation, price on application, set date sale, auction, tender, and people really don’t know if it’s $5m, $10m, $15m when you are talking high-end beautiful properties.”
While the Pahoia Road property had the highest list price in the Bay of Plenty, he said, it was also arguably the best property in the region by a long way.
Prior to the property being built, the council had tried to purchase the headland with riparian rights to turn into a reserve, but his vendor outbid the council.
“It became like a park, a private park and then they built this spectacular house on it. It’s very special,” Hawkins said.
“It’s higher than any other property in that area because it is superior.”
However, it’s not the highest list price he had ever put on a property as he had previously listed a South Island house for $25m, which was “getting up there”.
By Nikki Preston, OneRoof.co.nz
