A European couple who had never visited New Zealand have purchased their dream home in Auckland for $3.4 million, relying on a buyer’s agent to guide them through the process remotely.
According to a report by OneRoof, the couple, who hold New Zealand residency visas, bought a newly built four-bedroom property on Riddell Road in Glendowie in June. They are relocating to New Zealand with their three teenage daughters, making school zones a key factor in their decision.
Buyer’s agent Alex Martelli said overseas clients relied heavily on her team to provide detailed information about properties and neighbourhoods.
“For overseas clients, we take lots of videos and provide them with plenty of intel from our own knowledge of the local area,” she told OneRoof. “They don’t have to stress,” as quoted by OneRoof.
Martelli said buying a home for clients moving to a new country involved more than simply finding a suitable property.
“The trust is exceptionally high. And I have a belief in my team. I always go, ‘If it was your money, would you buy this home yourself?’, OneRoof has quoted.
“You are not just buying them a house. This is their first point of contact in New Zealand, which is a new culture, new climate, new lifestyle. It’s new everything,” as quoted by OneRoof.
The Glendowie property had been listed since 2023 through several agencies and was eventually sold to Martelli’s clients for $3.4 million, slightly below its $3.495 million asking price and more than $1.3 million below its rating valuation.
Bayleys agents Myles and Peter Cleave had indicated that the vendor was prepared to accept less than the property’s construction cost.
According to a report by OneRoof, Martelli said much of her work involved filtering large numbers of properties to identify a smaller selection that matched a client's requirements. In one case, a buyer began with a list of more than 40 properties, while another viewed only one home before making an offer.
Privacy is also a factor for some wealthy international buyers.
“We’ve worked with a few American buyers recently, who say, ‘I’ve got an American accent. I don’t want agents to go, ‘These guys don’t understand the market’,” OneRoof has quoted.
Martelli said buyer expectations sometimes had to be brought back to reality, particularly when clients had ambitious wish lists.
“We have a fiduciary duty to the buyer. You have to have a reality check and say, ‘Look, I understand what you want to buy, but that’s not actually achievable’. And those are tough conversations,” as quoted by OneRoof.
Her clients also include New Zealanders who lack the time or confidence to navigate the property market themselves.
“I had a chap call me - he’s a CEO of a very large firm. He goes, ‘Alex, I’m awesome at business negotiation ... but I actually don’t know how to negotiate property because it’s not my area of expertise. If I don’t know the market and the values, how do I negotiate this?’,” OneRoof has quoted.
Martelli’s team has purchased more than 80 properties for clients, ranging from about $800,000 to more than $10 million.
“If you’re a first-time buyer and you’ve worked your bottom off for years to save up, then that deposit is really important,” she said.
“When they are wealthier, [they] say, ‘I don’t want to be ripped off because I’m wealthy’. I’ll be damned if I’m going to be taken for a ride’,” as quoted by OneRoof.
She said buyers remained particularly cautious about overpaying in the current market, while overseas purchasers could find New Zealand’s lack of advertised asking prices difficult to navigate.
Martelli, who previously worked as a buyer’s agent in London, said property expectations could vary significantly between markets. In London, she had encountered buyers who rejected homes because garages were not large enough for luxury cars.
“There was a house in Parnell we were looking at, and the Porsche and the Ferrari would scrape [getting into the garage],” as quoted by OneRoof.
The latest government data shows five property purchases by overseas investors were approved in the past month, including three in Queenstown-Lakes, one in Auckland and one in Southland.
That brings the number of purchases of properties worth more than $5 million by “golden visa” holders to 25 since foreign investment rules were changed in March.
Bayleys chief executive Mark Macky said the company worked with international buyers through local buyer agents and its global partner, Knight Frank.
“Knight Frank is the dominant player at the top end of the market and has an extensive private office that deals with the family offices of [wealthy people],” he said, as quoted by OneRoof.
“We’re on regular calls with those guys, sharing listings, sharing properties, sharing buyers.”
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty managing director Mark Harris said its local agents also sometimes act as buyer’s agents for high-end clients referred through offices in the United States.
“In the US, they work both sides over there; they have buyer agents and listing agents. It’s something we’re exploring here as well in New Zealand,” he said, OneRoof has quoted.
Harris said some New Zealand properties were marketed exclusively to overseas buyers, with sellers sometimes seeking international purchasers and greater privacy.
“They feel like possibly the purchaser is more likely to be an international ... but also there’s sometimes a level of discretion that they would like as well,” he said, as quoted by OneRoof.
One such property currently being marketed internationally is a five-bedroom, four-bathroom Hamptons-style home in Campbells Bay on Auckland’s North Shore. The coastal property is listed on luxury accommodation platforms for up to $15,000 a night and has an asking price of US$19.045 million, equivalent to about NZ$32.5 million.