Demand for beachfront homes on Waiheke Island picked up over the summer, with one high-profile property recently selling for well over $11 million.
Graham Wall, of Wall Real Estate, told OneRoof there was high-level interest in holiday homes at Onetangi and neighbouring Palm Beach.
Wall, who last year sold a five-bedroom bach on Palm Road for $10.5m, is currently marketing a luxury property at 159 The Strand, in Onetangi, with similar price expectations.
“It’s an extraordinary thing, sort of built at the bottom of a cliff and you just walk down a ramp out the front of it and you’re in the sand,” he said.
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“It’s straight out there, it’s fantastic. About a year ago it got completely refurbished. It really is a unique thing.”
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The property has three bedrooms, four bathrooms and multiple entertaining areas inside and out. It also comes with a lift, a “beach room” with a bar, a new Cronin kitchen and bespoke marble bathrooms with brass accents throughout.
Wall, who said he has another $10m-plus property coming up for sale on Delamore Drive, not far from where the ferry comes in at Matiatia, was also able to shed light on one of the island’s most notable sales of recent months: a 1940s house at the eastern end of The Strand, which sold in November for $11.6m – nearly double its 2021 CV of $6.5m.
Wall said he almost listed the property, which is across the road from well-known Waiheke watering hole Charlie Farley’s, but before he could bring it to market a private deal was done between family members.
He said the house itself, which sits on a 900sqm corner section, had an interesting history because it was brought across the sea by boat. “It was on Takapuna Beach, that house, and a family put it on a barge and shipped it to Onetangi and rolled it off the barge and rolled it up the hill and put it on the site,” he said.
“Inside the house there’s a sort of a photo essay if you will of it being transported.”
159 The Strand, in Onetangi, Waiheke Island, has price expectations of $10m-plus. Photo / Supplied
55 Palm Road, in Palm Beach, Waiheke Island, is for sale for the first time in 40 years. Photo / Supplied
In Palm Beach, Sharene Temple, of Luxe Real Estate, has a similar sized property for sale. The five-bedroom bach at 55 Palm Road is on the market for the first time in 40 years.
Everyone, she said, wanted a spot on Palm Beach, but beachfront properties in the suburb rarely came up for sale. The bach goes to auction on February 26, and while Temple would not give a price indication the CV is $4.3m.
She said the vendors were mainland Aucklanders who bought the section four decades ago and then built a bach on it.
There is a gate on the section to the reserve next door and from there it is steps to the beach. “They can just literally walk onto the reserve straight to the beach,” she said, adding that the flat site was a drawcard.
“I think the beauty is it’s just a true Kiwi bach. We’ve had some really wealthy people come on site and go ‘oh, this is just what we want’.”
Others are looking at land banking, while others may consider building anew, she said.
A lot of baches in the area are “getting built into mansions” and more original baches on the island tend to be smaller and in not as good locations. “This is pretty one-off for this particular sought-after location,” she said.
- Click here to find more properties for sale on Waiheke Island
