Kāinga Ora sell-off: The location and prices paid for Auckland’s most valuable state homes, plus full national list

The city’s most valuable state home – 18 Trinity St, Ponsonby – bucked the trend as the 100-year-old-plus house and its 619sq m land parcel triggered an auction bidding war last October that drove its sale price to $3.4m – $250,000 above CV.

However, a 1940s Remuera home on an awkward shaped land parcel at 28 Wiles Ave sold for just $800,000 – half its $1.6m CV.

One Auckland development company picked up two prime bundles of land below CV.

Valocity’s analysis suggests it paid $2.2m for Mission Bay’s 107 and 107A Atkin Ave (which have a combined $3.45m CV) and $3m for 6 and 8 Meola Rd, Westmere (10% below CV).

Harcourts JK Realty co-owner and developer David Findlay said CVs were a rough guide only and the market was tough with the developer buyer pool thinned out.

“The only people buying are experienced developers. The 2020, 2021 crowd who wanted to be developers [during the housing boom] – they’ve been found out, they’ve gone cold and scared," he said.

The new sales figures provide the first detailed look at how Kāinga Ora’s biggest state-house sell-off in decades is tracking nine months in.

The coalition Government launched the sell-off last year, claiming Kāinga Ora’s $2.5 billion annual spending and rising debt had become unsustainable following the previous Labour Government’s ambitious building programme.

It said the agency would sell up to 900 homes each year.

Critics warned the move could turn into a cash grab that left vulnerable Kiwis without enough state homes.

But Caroline McDowall – Kāinga Ora’s manager for housing delivery – claimed her team were selling the agency’s old and unfit homes, aiming to reinvest the sale proceeds into “new and improved housing for tenants”.

She also said the agency used a registered valuer to value each property before putting it on sale and didn’t rely on council valuations done two years earlier.

Developers last year told the Heraldthe impending sell-off was exciting and could be likened to a “goldmine” opportunity.

Nine months in, the early sales show where developers have moved first – and how much they have paid.

The $3m paid for Westmere’s 6 and 8 Meola Rd properties in April 2025, according to Valocity analysis, was among notable developer purchases.

The developer picked up the 1940s-built Kāinga Ora homes and their 1234sq m land at 10% below the $3.33m combined CV.

But the developer didn’t stop there – also negotiating with the neighbouring private owner of 4 Meola Rd, paying them $1.3m in the same month, against a $1.35m CV.

Across the Auckland Harbour Bridge, six adjoining units at 9B to 9G Kerr St, Devonport were sold off in the past nine months at prices ranging from $830,000 to $1.425m. They appear to have been sold to separate buyers.

The big plays were not just confined to the inner suburbs.

Kāinga Ora properties 8A, 8B and 8C Reseda Place in Papatoetoe were sold as one lot, with the analysis showing they fetched $1.9m – against a $1.92m combined CV.

Whole apartment blocks have also been on the chopping block.

The biggest single sale recorded by Kāinga Ora was a 28-flat block at 2 Ryle St in Freemans Bay that fetched $8m for the whole complex.

In Blockhouse Bay, a set of boarded-up units at 60 Exminster St sold for $4.205m.

Among the high-value homes identified by the Herald last year, Mission Bay has recorded the biggest percentage sell-off.

Two of the six homes have now been sold, while seven of the 104 Ōrākei homes identified have been sold at a collective $11.3m.

Five high-value Pt Chevalier homes have sold for a combined $8.46m.

But overall, more than 800 “goldmine” homes remain in state ownership, with most of the recent Auckland sell-off occurring in outer suburbs or lower value properties.

Outside Auckland, Kāinga Ora has sold 521 state homes across the rest of the country for a combined $151m.

That’s about twice as many state homes as Auckland but for less total money, reflecting Auckland’s higher property prices.

Kāinga Ora‘s McDowall said her team always aimed to “get the best possible price for the properties” it sold.

She said the agency relied on valuations done by registered valuers and if a property sold for less than that value, Kāinga Ora weighed that against the “overall return from all the properties we are selling”.

Across more than 250 sales in Auckland, she said sale prices had been 5.2% above the valuations provided by the registered valuers.

Tom Rawson, director of Ray White agencies in south and central Auckland, said Kāinga Ora appeared to have been strategic in its approach, given the tough market conditions, and he was grateful the agency hadn’t sold vast quantities at once.

“Dumping it all on the market at the same time would have probably crashed the market.”

He said Auckland properties of all types in the last three months had typically been selling at around 10% below CV.

But CVs could also be misleading as the automated valuations that produced them often didn’t account for other obstacles to development, such as land that was steep or awkwardly shaped, he said.

“Developers aren’t necessarily as keen on tricky land. You’ll see some [properties] sell way below and others that are just like, ‘I can’t believe the [Government] still owns that – that would have gone for good money’."

The sale prices published in this article are based on public records and careful analysis by the Herald and analysts Valocity.

Kāinga Ora published a list of property addresses it said it had sold, but without land titles or sale prices.

To match each address to its sale price, the Herald and Valocity cross-checked Land Information New Zealand records, Auckland Council 2024 valuations and other sources. Where neighbouring properties specifically mentioned in this story have been sold as a package, the Herald has relied on Valocity analysis for suggested sale prices.

If further information becomes available regarding specific properties, the Heraldwill update its map.