Buyer pays $24 million for 14-year-old Lanikai oceanfront estate

Million-dollar home sales on Oahu have been pretty common since May with nearly half of all sales qualifying as such, yet one astounding transaction took place last week.

A 14-year-old oceanfront estate in Lanikai featuring a four-bedroom main residence, a four-bedroom guest house, a caretaker’s cottage and a boat ramp sold for $24.4 million on July 20.

The price for the property on two lots totaling 35,175 square feet of land at 1240 Mokulua Drive wasn’t a record, but is a fresh example of just how much some folks are willing to spend on residences in the islands — especially in tony old neighborhoods still sprinkled with modest single-family houses, and in resort areas where elaborate mansions are perched on acres of land.

“The beauty and lifestyle that Lanikai has to offer continues to be highly desired and unique,” Ruthie Kaminskas, an agent with Corcoran Pacific Properties who represented the seller, said in a statement.

Oahu’s all-time priciest single-family home sale was 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.

Property records also show a home at 4505 Kahala Ave. sold for $29 million in 2006.

On the neighbor islands, a Maui home on 4 acres in Wailea sold for $41.8 million in 2015, and a 2.6-acre estate at Mauna Kea Resort on Hawaii island sold for $29 million in 2007.

In the local condominium market, at least a couple of units on Oahu have sold in recent years for close to or over $20 million, including one “grand penthouse” at Park Lane Ala Moana that sold for $23.5 million three years ago. More recently, a buyer purchased two units in the Waiea condo tower at Ward Village for $16 million in February.