The receivers of Auckland’s long-stalled Seascape apartment tower have launched an international sale campaign for the 56-storey structure on Customs Street East, engaging Bayleys Real Estate and Knight Frank to find a buyer or completion partner capable of finishing what was once set to become New Zealand’s tallest residential building.
Construction on the 187-metre tower ground to a halt in August 2024 after a dispute between developer Shundi Customs and contractor China Construction New Zealand. A tribunal ruled that Shundi owed the builder approximately $33 million in unpaid bills, and when those bills went unpaid, China Construction sent 25 subcontractors home and suspended work. The shell of the building has stood silent on Auckland’s waterfront fringe ever since.
Shanghai-based Shundi Group’s New Zealand vehicle, Shundi Customs Limited, was placed into receivership on 4 March 2026 by China Construction Bank, which is owed more than $100 million. Receivers Brendon Gibson and Neale Jackson of Calibre Partners were appointed to manage the assets and find a resolution, as reported by Interest.co.nz. A related entity, Shundi Tamaki Village Limited, which owns the former Auckland University campus in Glen Innes, is also in receivership and will be separately marketed.
Gibson said when the receivers were appointed that they would work with Icon Construction, the firm currently maintaining the site, to preserve safety and security while assessing the options available. That assessment has now settled on a sale, with Bayleys and Knight Frank jointly appointed to run the international process.
Bayleys chairman and managing director Mike Bayley framed the opportunity positively, saying Seascape represents a unique control opportunity at an inflection point, and noting that the project has progressed beyond the most time-intensive stages of construction. The main structural frame of the building is complete and the tower was topped out in 2024, meaning the primary skeleton stands at its full height even as the facade and internal fit-out remain unfinished.
Completing the project is no small undertaking. Industry estimates put the remaining cost somewhere between $120 million and $300 million, with the wide range reflecting uncertainty over the scale of remediation required before fit-out can proceed. Icon Construction was understood to have bid approximately $180 million to finish the job. Experts are divided on structural integrity, with documented concerns about potential saltwater degradation of steel reinforcing in some sections and the possibility that curtain wall panels across the full height of the building may need replacement, according to analysis published by B2B News.
The 221 planned apartments include penthouses, studios, and one to three-bedroom units, all designed to exceed Auckland Council minimum standards by at least 10 per cent. At peak enthusiasm for the project, the tower was marketed as an aspirational address in the heart of the CBD, one block from the waterfront. The reality in 2026 is rather different. Approximately 166 buyers who paid 10 per cent deposits years ago remain in legal limbo, while those who purchased later have been classified as unsecured creditors with no guaranteed path to recovering their money.
The broader market environment has not helped. Net migration to New Zealand fell sharply to just 14,200 for the year ended December 2025, well below the post-pandemic surge that had underpinned optimism about CBD apartment demand. Auckland residential values declined 0.5 per cent in February alone, and unemployment has risen to 5.4 per cent, the highest level since 2015. Construction sector employment has contracted significantly over the past year, and developer confidence has not recovered to anything like the levels that made the Seascape project seem viable a decade ago.
What the receivers are hoping is that international capital will see value where local funding has not. Singaporean investors have been identified as one possible pool of interest, with hotel operators among those said to be considering the building as a potential large accommodation property that could house more than 500 rooms. A conversion of that kind would require consent changes, but Auckland’s visitor market has recovered strongly since the pandemic years, and a well-positioned hotel in that location would have ready access to both corporate and leisure demand.
A regulatory change that took effect in March 2026 may provide a further avenue for the campaign. Active Investor Plus visa holders are now permitted to purchase a single residential property valued at $5 million or more. Completed Seascape apartments could reach that threshold, giving the sale process a narrow but real angle to certain categories of overseas buyer.
The project’s trajectory offers a sobering lesson for the construction and development sector more broadly. Seascape bypassed the presale discipline that conventional New Zealand development relies on, instead funding construction through offshore developer equity and Chinese bank debt. That model worked during a period of rising property values, strong migration, and sustained offshore confidence in the New Zealand market. When all three of those assumptions unwound at once, the structure had no local safety net to fall back on.
Industry observers have noted that the fate of Seascape will send a signal across the mid-tier Auckland apartment development sector. If a completed tower frame in a prime waterfront-adjacent CBD location cannot attract completion funding on workable terms, the economics of speculative high-density residential development in New Zealand’s largest city remain deeply challenging.
The international sale campaign is expected to begin formal marketing within the coming weeks, as RNZ reports. Until a buyer emerges, the unfinished tower will continue to stand as one of the most visible symbols of the pressures now facing large-scale urban development in New Zealand.
What do you think about the outlook for Auckland’s apartment development market? Share your view in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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