Kiwis are picking up the pace on island shopping, even as other parts of the holiday home market come to grips with a new reality, according to real estate agents who specialise in off-shore properties,
Quietly on the market this year has been a handful of entire islands, including a private island in the Hauraki Gulf, and a couple of islands in the Bay of Islands. Agents are not permitted to talk places or prices, often using a private tender process to extract likely buyers, rather than public marketing.
Bayleys agent John Greenwood, who estimates he has sold four islands and at least a dozen estates on private islands in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Islands, said that buyers today are mostly wealthy New Zealanders.
“You can be looking at values from $4m to $5m, right up to $50m, for Pakatoa Island, which is still on the market,” he said.
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“They are more high-net worth individuals looking at securing something unique. They don’t have to have a helicopter pad, but now it’s a big part of the convenience in buying these. An island buyer is looking for privacy, road transport isn’t part of someone being able to come and see them.”
One private island estate Greenwood recently sold was on Roberton Island, which is located in the Bay of Islands – just 20 minutes by boat from Russell.
Also known as Motuarohia Island, the 6464sqm waterfront estate came with a four-bedroom, three-bathroom property along with a separate guesthouse for visitors, a private jetty and helicopter access.
LJ Hooker agent Robert Hood, whose patch includes Kawau Island off Sandspit, north of Auckland, said that sales on the island took off during Covid and have continued at nearly double pre-Covid levels since.
“Until 2020, there were about 10 to 12 sales a year. Then May 2020 to May 2021, it just about tripled to 33 sales, from a value of $3.6m to $21m. And in the next 12 months [to May 2022], we’ve seen 24 sales for $15m value.
“People weren’t travelling, they wanted to be close to Auckland. And this year the level of enquiry has increased,” Hood said.
What’s interesting is the mix of sales this year, he said, with half the sales being for vacant sections – six of them selling for under $250,000, another six for under $400,000.
The four-bedroom house at 15 Elizabeth Point Road, overlooking South Cove on Auckland's Kawau Island, is for sale this summer. Photo / Supplied
“You’d be hard pressed to find 1000sqm with a sea view anywhere else in Auckland for that price. People can start with a modest modular home and add to it over time, there are so many advances in things like solar or septic systems.”
At the other end of the scale, there have been two sales over $2.1m for smart designer homes and the rest for good bachs in the $900,000 to $1m price range, he said. Most coveted are places with their own all-tide private wharf, where generally prices are about $1.2m to $1.3m.
This week Hood settles on a 1990s three-bedroom home in Bon Accord Harbour, the island’s biggest, that sold after just three weeks on the market.
“This summer I’ve sold three in the last two weeks, with another three possible before Christmas. These are keen buyers, they’re island people who want privacy and don’t want to be tripping over each other.
“They often have some history with [the] island, perhaps parents or family friends. A lot are inter-generational, handed down from families. There are high-end properties that could fetch $3.5m – that’s rare on the island, upper end is more like high $2m.”
A sprawling seven-bedroom house in Schoolhouse Bay, Kawau Island, was asking a record $3.45m 18 months ago but may now sell for around $3m. Photo / Supplied
Top price on the island is expected for a sprawling architecturally-designed seven-bedroom home on over one hectare in Schoolhouse Bay which, when it listed 18 months ago, was expecting a record $3.45m but is now selling by negotiation for around $3m.
Hood’s listings include a modest three-bedroom waterfront home on Smelting House Bay, backed with over 5000sqm of land which would be expected to fetch around $1.3m.
“People are reluctant sellers,” he said.
Independent agent Debbie Aldred said that up until the past six months of winter rain – and some 40 appointments cancelled because of bad weather – the last two years had been “phenomenal”.
“Top sale was $2.15m, there was another for $2.1m. I have had people making offers up to $3.5m on places not on the market, but the owners don’t want to sell. These are second and third generation, and they’re fiercely protective of anything on the island.”
Aldred was only half joking when she told OneRoof that finding buyers for a legacy property she has just listed such as an architect-designed four-bedroom home on 3460sqm on Elizabeth Point Road, above South Cove, is a matchmaking exercise.
A modest three-bedroom 1970s house on the water with over 5000sqm of bush land is expected to sell for around $1.3m. Photo / Supplied
“I'm putting the right people on this island, it’s not just a transaction, but what skills are they bringing to the island,” she said, adding that buyers thinking they can make offers around the CV of properties need to think again.
“We don’t deal with CV. They’re low because Kawau Islanders don’t get civic services, so it keeps rates so low. And houses are mostly sold fully furnished. I’ve got a listing at the moment for $850,000 [whose] CV is $150,000, another which is more likely to go for over $2m than its well-below $1m CV.
“There's a real sense of family, these are held in families as a legacy, something for the children. It’s really cool.”
And if going off-shore is not on the cards, lining up a home beside a golf course is a city-edge possibility. While it may not rank with the price of homes on New Zealand’s top golf course Tara Iti, 90 minutes to the north, the Wainui Golf Course on Auckland’s north west, 10 minutes out of Silverdale, might fit the bill.
Harcourts agent Gareth Hookham, who is bringing a near-new four-bedroom house at 65 Grayson Road, Wainui, to tender on December 14, said the property was one of the first completed homes in the estate.
The vendors are selling the luxury house, finished just three months ago, to build another home on the neighbouring land.
“It’s hard to put a price on this, the only other sale was off-the-plans, a while ago, for $2.1m, but I think if it sells this will be a record. It’s elevated looking straight at the golf course,” Hookham said.
