There were four registered bidders on Saturday for apartment 601 at the top of The Botanical building on Dean Street.

Director at Stean Nicholls Real Estate and auctioneer Geoff Stean said it was a “rare real estate opportunity” for investors.

“In most of our lifetimes, this will probably be the only one that is on Dean Street,” Mr Stean told potential buyers before the auction.

“So you are buying an opportunity and you’re buying something that is unique.

“To offer something that is unique and something of this calibre is an absolute pinnacle of my 40 years in real estate,” he said.

But, the never before lived-in four bedroom apartment with 360-degree views wasn’t enough for the quiet audience, who prompted Mr Stean to open with a vendors bid of $1 million.

Just one bid of $1,050,000 was placed before the penthouse was passed in.

Mr Stean said it wasn’t the result he had hoped for.

“We’ve got an under-bidder, so we have someone who we will negotiate with and we will make public early next week how those negotiations went,” Mr Stean said.

“Maybe it’s the time of the year, we’ve got people there who have made offers so we will take it from there.

“Probably it being a bit unique might be a little bit intimidating possibly.”

Mr Stean said he expected the penthouse to sell for $1.3 million.