Auckland’s most expensive mansion now worth $73m - jumps almost $15m in latest CVs

Author: Ben Leahy,
Publish Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2025, 1:24pm

Auckland’s most expensive home has risen in value by almost $15 million at a time when many of the city’s most luxurious houses have taken a significant hit.

That’s according to new Auckland Council valuations, known as CVs, released this morning.

The CVs - which are supposed to happen every three years and involve a revaluation of all 630,000 properties across the city - show the home owned by exporter Deyi “Stone” Shi on Huriaro Place in Ōrākei is now valued at $72.5m.

That’s jumped $14.5m from the 2021 $58m valuation.

That jump has occurred during a period when Auckland house prices have fallen back from the record highs of the 2021 market peak.

By contrast billionaire Graeme Hart’s Riddell Rd home in Glendowie has had its CV drop from $52m to $48m over the same period.

Wayne Shum, senior researcher with Valocity, said the difference between the two mega-mansions could relate to how much land they each sat on.

He said the value of undeveloped land appeared to have fallen in many locations across the city and much of Hart’s property sat on a big section of land.

“Obviously, the house on Riddell Rd must be fantastic as well but the size of the property means it is very much a land-driven value,” he said.

Overall, Auckland’s 10 most expensive homes are now worth just over $429m combined, according to the new CVs.

Another home on the top 10 list to jump significantly in CV is the 300ha Waiheke Island farm bought by Mainfreight chairman Bruce Plested in 2021.

Auckland Council had valued the property at $41m in 2021, but its value has shot up by $9m to $50m, data released today shows.

Despite that, the CV is still well below the $72m that Plested paid for the property.

Luxury real estate agent Graham Wall from Wall Real Estate, told property website OneRoof this highlighted how CVs didn’t matter much for homebuyers.

He pointed to the Ōrākei home owned by Shi and valued by council at $72m, saying it wouldn’t be possible to buy that mansion for less than $80m today.

Wall said council valuations that were largely done with automated software often didn’t take account of nuances like the beauty of the view or taste of the interiors.

The CVs are a massive source of fascination for property-mad Aucklanders when it comes to buying and selling homes.

But property experts said they should be taken with a grain of salt in many instances and what was more important was the value that buyers were willing to pay at any time.

Council chief finance officer Ross Tucker said CVs were not for estimating the current market value of properties or for mortgage and insurance purposes, but to share rates between properties.

For a start, the CVs are based on valuations as of May 1, 2024 - which are more than a year old.

Auckland Council already knows ahead of time how much money it plans to collect through rates and the CVs are a way to try to ensure everyone pays a fair share of that.

Tucker said the average residential value across the city had dropped by 9%. But a higher valuation didn’t necessarily mean a higher rates bill.

Owners of properties whose value change fared better than the average 9% drop would pay more in rates.

Owners of properties that fared worse than the average drop would pay less.

Tucker said the valuations did not change how much the council collected in rates from the 5.8% increase for households, but allowed rates to be fairly shared.

Suburban areas on the Hibiscus Coast, Albany, Hobsonville, Greenhithe and residential areas in rural Rodney and Franklin have held up better than the citywide average 9% drop in property values.

In Rodney, there was no change between the two valuations, and the 800 properties on Great Barrier Island shot up by an average of 38%.

The overall CV movements between the two sets of CVs are: