Record price, $80m, paid for an office building in Christchurch

The Manawa building in Oxford Terrace in Christchurch near Christchurch Hospital has been sold for about $80m to a Dutch investor who is a retired lawyer and is living in Auckland.

Christchurch has recorded its highest-priced office building sale, for about $80 million.

The seven-storey Manawa office building on Oxford Terrace near Christchurch Hospital in the city's new Te Papa Hauora/Health Precinct was bought by Dutch national and retired lawyer, Wolf Herwegh Vonk, who moved to New Zealand with his family last year. They are living in Auckland.

Herwegh Vonk bought the building from Chinese property development company Huadu International which bought out the original NewUrban Group, a joint venture between Huadu Construction and local investors John Fairhall and Bert Govan.

Despite the Covid-19 lockdowns the property attracted more than $1 billion of offers from New Zealand and overseas investors.

It houses more than 2000 Ara nursing, midwifery and medical imaging students along with Canterbury District Health Board education and development staff and University of Canterbury staff.

CBRE NZ brokered the sale and CBRE managing director in Christchurch Tim Rookes said it was the highest value single office building sale in the city.

The sale demonstrated the increasing attractiveness of good-quality, long-term commercial property investments in Christchurch, Rookes said.

The city was becoming more widely considered as a prime place to invest with a CBD that offered A grade buildings constructed to a high standard following the earthquakes, Rookes said.

Sole agents of the property sale were Savills New Zealand with CBRE bringing in the successful buyer.

Ryan Geddes, managing director of Savills New Zealand, said generally, international investors had not often considered Christchurch an attractive investment destination, so the serious offshore interest confirmed the superior characteristics of the Manawa building as well as the attractiveness of Christchurch's CBD property market.

"Opportunities to buy quality office assets in Auckland and Wellington are few and far between and Christchurch has brand new, quality stock with good long leases," Geddes said.

The sale was market-changing for Christchurch.

Article supplied by


MoST Content Management V3.0.8839