Big money is being spent on real estate in Northland, with buyers paying a record $4.46 million for a waterfront home in Tutukaka and two tiny baches selling for more than $2m in nearby Matapouri.
The three-bedroom architect-designed bach on Pacific Bay Road, one of only a handful of properties directly on the water in Tutukaka, had been expected to sell for $1m or more above its July 2021 RV of $2.35m, but seven keen bidders drove the price sky high.
Team Tait agent Pam Johnson, who marketed the property, said that absolute waterfront was rare in the town famed for its proximity to the Poor Knights diving mecca. OneRoof records show the property sold for $1.67m 15 years ago.
“It’s pretty hard to find waterfront. I wish I had more to sell,” said Johnson.
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“There were three or four bidders going right to the end. People have still got the money. I’ve been making a lot of phone calls to find them more.”
The previous record of $2.4m for the area was set five years ago for a spread on Dolphin Place, on the hills above the town.
Ten minutes’ drive from Tutukaka, in the tiny beach town of Matapouri, Eves agent Lyn Cochrane had two original 1960s two-bedroom baches sell above $2.3m this summer.
Bidders who missed out on a Waetford Road property on 658sqm that went for $2.35m just before Christmas piled into the auction last week for one on nearby Morrison Avenue, which had 809sqm of land for the tents and boats. The hammer came down at $2.55m, three times the property’s July 2021 RV of just $850,000.
The two-bedroom bach on Morrison Avenue, in Matapouri, sold at auction for $2.55m. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof records show it last sold for just $68,000 in 1990.
The Waetford Road and Morrison Avenue properties sit back from the waterfront, although in the tiny settlement both are easy walks to the beach.
The sale prices break the town’s previous record of $2.345m set in October 2020 for a huge five bedroom 342sqm modern house on a 718sqm non-waterfront site, also on Waetford Road.
Cochrane, who has sold properties for over 25 years in the town named by New Zealand Herald’s Travel as the country’s best beach, is surprised at the sudden uptick in prices.
“It’s just gone ‘whoosh’, it’s astonishing. Properties went up $1m in the last six months,” she said.
“A very similar property on Morrison, one back from the beach, sold for just $1.5m a year ago. Another on Galbraith Street that went for $1.48m in February last year would be worth $2.5m now.”
She added: “There’s definitely nothing under $1m. The cheapest is a one-bedroom apartment on Waetford passed in at auction at $730,000 and is back on the market.”
Just before Christmas, another two-bedroom bach on Waetford Road, in Matapouri, sold for $2.35m. Photo / Supplied
This week Cochrane is bringing a four-bedroom 180sqm house on an 807sqm corner site on Ringer Road to auction, but says the bigger project to finish off the two-storeyed house may appeal to different buyers from the smaller cottages.
She said buyers were mostly Aucklanders, many of whom were looking further north for more traditional Kiwi spots. The tiny dairy/fish and chip shop was all people need, as the amenities of more tourist-oriented Tutukaka are just 10 minutes’ drive away, she said.
Cochrane was pleased that the Auckland buyers of the Morrison Avenue bach intend to keep it as it is.
Properties like it rarely come to the open market, she said, more often than not changing hands between friends and family who have been coming to Matapouri for years.
Eves Whangarei general manager Tanya Swain said demand was outstripping supply.
“If we had another five Morrison Avenue and Waetford Road properties on our list we could sell them all within days for more than $2m,” she said.
“We’re not even talking about absolute waterfront residences either, just anywhere within 200 metres of the sand is being hunted down.
“It’s as if Matapouri has just appeared from out of nowhere to now be a prime and sought-after beach location, when in fact it has been a beach destination for generations.”
Swain said that waterfront values had grown in other Northland beach towns, including Waipu, Ruakaka, Whangarei Heads and Tutukaka, forcing buyers to move their attention north to places like Matapouri.
But, she told OneRoof, buyers have to ignore the 2021 ratings valuations, as they are “completely wrong”.
