Honolulu penthouse condo sells for record $27.5M
Oct. 18—The eighth-floor penthouse, featuring 5, 668 square feet of interior living space, including four bedrooms and 4-1 /2 bathrooms, sold Thursday.
Hawaii has a new price pinnacle in its housing market.
An unnamed wealthy buyer recently paid $27.5 million for a penthouse condominium in Honolulu, eclipsing the prior peak of $22 million for the same unit at the Park Lane Ala Moana midrise when it first sold six years ago new.
The eighth-floor penthouse featuring 5, 668 square feet of interior living space, including four bedrooms and 4-1 /2 bathrooms, sold Thursday.
Described as "Hawaiian Heaven, " the unit also includes two balconies spanning 1, 188 square feet, a sauna, a wine cellar room, four parking spaces, homeowner association fees of $10, 248 a month and property taxes this year totaling $12, 804 a month.
Erik Hinshaw, a broker with Hawai 'i Life who represented the buyer with colleague Noel Pietsch Shaw, said the seller didn't have their home listed for sale when an inquiry on behalf of his client was made for the unit.
"It was pretty much an unsolicited offer, " explained William "Billy " Robillard, a broker with ChaneyBrooks Choice Advisors who represented the seller.
Hawai 'i Life declined to share the buyer's name or where the buyer is from, though Hinshaw said the deal shows that wealthy buyers highly value the uppermost crust of Hawaii real estate where little product exists on par with the most expensive homes in the world.
"It shows that there's still an amazing amount of wealth in the world, and Hawaii is a top destination for buyers, " he said.
The seller, according to property records, was a company affiliated with the unit's original buyer from Japan, Akihito Awaji.
Placing a value on such an ultra-luxury home comes down largely to original and resale prices of other Park Lane units per square foot plus a premium because there are only three penthouses in the 219-unit complex developed in 2017 on a corner of Ala Moana Center, Hawaii's largest shopping mall, overlooking Ala Moana Beach Park.
"It's kind of a one-of-a-kind unit, " said Robillard, who also represented Awaji in 2017 when buying Unit 3800 at Park Lane. "Being a little biased, I think we got the best one (of the penthouses )."
The record sale is rather detached from Hawaii's general residential real estate market, where sales have slowed and prices have flattened in large part because of interest rates that have risen above 7 % for an average 30-year mortgage, up from less than half as much during much of the prior two years.
According to disclosed terms of the record sale, the buyer paid cash.
Robillard said the seller also received a near 50 % bonus on the sale because of how much stronger the U.S. dollar is in relation to the Japanese yen now compared with when the unit was first purchased.
"They make out twice when they convert dollars back to yen, " Robillard said.
While the recent sale represents a record for a residential condo in Hawaii, a much older record for a single home still stands.
This record was set in 1988 when Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto paid $42.5 million for the former estate of industrialist Henry Kaiser on 7.2 acres of leasehold land in Portlock.
Other incredibly pricey sales in more recent years have included an oceanfront home at 4505 Kahala Ave. that sold for $29 million in 2006 and an oceanfront estate at 1240 Mokulua Drive in Lanikai featuring a main residence, a guest house, a caretaker's cottage and a boat ramp that sold for $24.4 million in 2021.
