Valuations show tale of two cities

By Lane Nichols

5:00 AM Saturday Nov 15, 2014

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Huge gains and big falls evident in latest council figures which also highlight fast-growing divide

This Orakei mansion is valued at $39m. Photo / Greg Bowker

Auckland's cheapest property is a $40,000 flat that's worth nearly 1000 times less than the most valuable luxury home - highlighting the growing divide in our nation's biggest city.

Data compiled exclusively for the Weekend Herald by CoreLogic shows five Auckland properties that recorded the biggest valuation declines this week have shed more than $6 million combined.

But New Zealand's richest property owners are enjoying the biggest gains, with the nation's two most valuable houses each surging by $9 million since the 2011 revaluations.

The Auckland property market has seen residential house values surge by an average 34 per cent in the past three years. But it's very much a tale of two cities, with some homeowners enjoying big gains but others posting breathtaking falls.

Oravida founder Deyi Shi's Paritai Drive mansion was the nation's most valuable at $39 million, followed by Graeme Hart's sprawling clifftop home on Riddell Rd, Glendowie, which jumped to $31 million this year.

The Chrisco mansion in Coatesville, rented by Kim Dotcom but built by Christmas hamper company founder Richard Bradley, added more than $3 million to hit $23.55 million. A grand lifestyle property on Waiheke Rd, Waiheke Island, whose registered owner is a company owned by Mainfreight chairman Bruce Plested, is now worth a dizzying $23 million.

Rounding out the top five is Government House Auckland on Mountain Rd, Epsom, valued at $20.5 million and owned by Her Majesty the Queen.

Realty agent Graham Wall, who sold the $39 million Paritai Drive home, said council estimates on high value properties could be out by millions of dollars.

But away from the glittering wealth of the nation's most exclusive homes are the city's cheapest digs.

A "residential flat" in Central Auckland's Beach Rd is now worth just $40,000, making it the city's lowest valued property. Its Auckland Council-appraised price tag is 975 times cheaper than the lavish mansion that takes out top spot.

Owner Tony Gapes said the 25sq m leasehold property was used as an office.

Two South Head properties on Haranui Rd are the city's cheapest houses - one is worth $74,000 and the other just $69,000.

A Beach Rd flat in Auckland Central has the cheapest valuation of $40,000. Photo / File

Meanwhile, two flats in Mulberry Place, Glenfield, on the North Shore, are worth just $82,000 each. Owner Clement Cattell, who bought the properties in 1992, said each should be worth about $800,000 today. But instead they were now "untenanted, uninsurable and uninhabitable" due to damage caused by unstable land.

The 73-year-old said the problems stemmed from earthworks carried out by the former North Shore City Council on adjoining reserve land in 1996.

He is fighting the Auckland Council over liability and has lodged legal proceedings in the High Court.

"I've got two properties I can't sell, can't insure, can't repair, all because the council won't admit they caused the problem. We'd be looking for a sum in excess of $1 million [in damages]."

Auckland Council confirmed it was being sued.

Other property owners face problems of a different kind. Two exclusive Remuera homes have shed about $3.5 million between them in the latest revaluations, though one of the owners blames a council "miscalculation" and plans to contest the figure.

And a five-bedroom Waiheke Island lifestyle home on Delamore Rd posted the next biggest slump, shedding $1 million from his 2011 $7 million valuation. Co-owner Dallas Pendergrast declined to comment yesterday.

A council spokeswoman said rating valuations were calculated using "mass appraisal techniques".

The objection period for anyone wanting to contest their valuation was now open and property owners had the statutory right to object.

State house suburb strikes gold with 60pc hike in values

Murdoch Dryden. Photo / File

Glen Innes' Cinderella-like transformation into a des-res is gathering pace with state and ex-state properties with views gaining 60 per cent in the latest council revaluation.

Two waterfront sites awaiting redevelopment in Fernwood Place, Wai O Taiki bay, have been valued at $1.2 million - up $440,000 in three years.

Land and capital values have soared throughout Wai O Taiki, a neighbourhood of state and ex-state houses with sea views on the edge of Glen Innes, with most rises topping 50 per cent. But Housing NZ won't reap the rewards. The state house provider sold much of its Wai O Taiki estate in the 1990s and three years ago sold a further 45 homes to a property consortium redeveloping another state house neighbourhood off Apirana Ave, near the Glen Innes town centre.

The valuation windfall means developer Creating Communities can contemplate even more upscale redevelopment of its Wai O Taiki sites. The deal was part of a trade-off: the developers gaining ownership of high-value Crown land overlooking the Tamaki River in exchange for building social components into the Apirana redevelopment.

The consortium - Arrow International, Hopper Developments, Southside Group and director Murdoch Dryden - is focusing on the Apirana zone first.

The mixed ownership model and more intensive use of the land are seen as prototypes for a much bigger "regeneration programme" being undertaken by the Tamaki Redevelopment Company in Glen Innes and Panmure, where HNZ owns more than half the 5000 homes.

Creative Communities plans to build 70 homes on 45 Wai O Taiki sites for private sale. Mr Dryden says a healthy profit at Wai O Taiki was always anticipated - but any windfall would compensate for building better quality homes at Akarana than likely market prices would justify.

The twin redevelopments will replace 156 HNZ properties in northern Glen Innes with 260 homes. But Housing NZ will own just 78 homes in the Akarana zone. The remaining 180 homes will be sold privately.

- NZ Herald

By Lane Nichols