The most-viewed listings on OneRoof this year run a gamut of price brackets and locations, and include connections to both Lorde and The Lord of the Rings and not one but two islands, one of which is being marketed by a former deputy prime minister.
At the top of the list is a one-bedroom “waterfront getaway” in a lodge in the Coromandel town of Tairua with an asking price of $440,000.
Harcourts agent Adam Fuller said the unit was in a great spot with water views and glorious sunsets from the private balcony.
Potential buyers will own the unit outright but can only reside in it for a limited period each year. The rest of the time it can be rented out.
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“It generates great income and pays for itself,” Fuller said, explaining that bookings, cleaning and upkeep are taken care of.
3/10 The Esplanade, in Tairua, Coromandel, is on the market with a $440,000 price tag. Photo / Supplied
“It’s a good value investment for a holiday destination that people wouldn’t use all year round. Generally, people buy a holiday home for $1 million-plus and they only use it a small percentage of the year.”
The second-most viewed listing on OneRoof is something different altogether: an eight-bedroom mega home in South Auckland.
The property, on Uru Drive, in Flat Bush, sold for $1.615m in June, and is one of many in the suburb that was built with large, multi-generational families in mind.
Ray White agent Stephen Wang described the house in his marketing as a smart, architecturally-designed, modern weatherboard family home in a great position.
Two generous bedrooms on the lower level had their own living area and entrance, “the perfect retreat to accommodate extended families and friends while providing great undisturbed privacy between the occupants”.
An eight-bedroom mega-home on Uru Drive, in Flat Bush, Auckland, recevied a lot of buyer attention. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof reported earlier this year that mega-homes make up 40% of new-builds in Flat Bush, with more than a dozen with eight bedrooms currently listed on OneRoof. Agents told OneRoof that many of the homes are set up with a granny flat, which allows elderly parents to have some private space or families to take in a boarder to help pay the mortgage.
The two islands that feature on the most-viewed list, at number three and nine, also offer plenty of space, but mostly of the outdoor kind.
Together, Motuekaiti Island, in the Far North, and Motuketekete Island, in Kawau Bay, in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf, offer more than 25 hectares of land.
Bayleys agent John Greenwood said it’s no surprise these islands get so many views as they are idyllic, but adds that islands require a bit more thinking through for buyers who don’t always realise the cost.
“It’s not straightforward. You need to either have a helicopter or you need to drive and have somewhere to park your car and then get a boat, and particularly the one that’s further up, that’s not easy.”
The Hauraki Gulf island is easier to get to because people can park their car at Sandspit and travel across from there, but it has a $12m price tag.
Motuketekete Island, in Kawau Bay, is being marketed for sale by former deputy PM Paula Bennett. Photo / Supplied
Motuekaiti Island, in the Far North, sold in November. Photo / Supplied
Greenwood said there was regular inquiry, mainly from New Zealanders, but there are a “lot of dreamers” who do a double take at the $12m tag for Motuketekete and the $3.5m wanted for Motuekaiti.
“The smaller one I would get 10 inquiries a week. Most people are hoping it’s $2m but it’s $3.5m,” he said.
“It’s absolutely stunning. It is small but it is beautiful and it’s shaped just like you think an island should be with a beautiful little protected cove with a white sandy beach and all the rest of it.
“It does look fantastic and all the inquiry basically comes through saying, ‘how much?’.”
Both islands were listed at the start of the year, with Motuekaiti selling in November. Greenwood said Motuketekete, which he is marketing with former deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett and Matakana agent Kellie Bissett, could well sell during the summer.
Also still available on the list is a 1910 three-bedroom character cottage in Porangahau, in Hawke’s Bay.
3477 Porangahau Road is listed with Property Brokers agents Molly Baldwin and Jane Hamilton, who describe it in their marketing as someone’s chance to escape to the country to live a charming life growing vegetables and flowers.
Priced at $525,000-plus, the property could be the best priced lifestyle property in the region, the agents said.
“The three-bedroom cottage sits on 3269sqm with a sprawling country style garden and a couple of paddocks so there is plenty of space to live the lifestyle life.”
The house has been upgraded with a modern country style kitchen and bathroom but has retained the original features throughout.
3477 Porangahau Road, in Porangahau, Central Hawke's Bay, is still up for grabs. Photo / Supplied
New-builds at 9-11 Egmont Street, in Castlecliff, Whanganui, are priced at $600,000. Photo / Supplied
Reasonably priced homes in Whanganui also feature in the list, with 9-11 Egmont Street, in Castlecliff, on the market for $600,000, the fifth most viewed listing on OneRoof this year.
Listing agent Shannon Jury, from Harcourts, told OneRoof earlier this year that four two-bedroom townhouses on freehold titles were selling off-plan, and the current listing has two still for sale.
The properties are on for a good price in a good location and close to the beach, he said, with the listing describing them as extremely well-designed townhouses with single garages offering internal access and low maintenance living all within walking distance of the beach, shopping and public transport.
“These homes come turnkey with no hidden costs. In a market where building a home can be a tricky process to navigate these homes offer a stress-free solution.”
Last year’s most viewed property came in at number six this year. The 1381sqm block of bushland on Waiheke Road, in Onetangi, on Waiheke Island, sold for $350,000 in August after 16 months on the market.
Concept plans for what the dream bach on the Waiheke Road property could look like. Photo / Supplied
The property had been initially listed with a price tag of $600,000 and was sold with concept plans for a luxury bach, but despite plenty of interest no one was biting at that level. Agent Andrew Lanyon, from Waiheke Homes, said in the most recent marketing that the owners were at the end of the financial rollercoaster and had to sell the property: “The bank’s instructions are clear and we need this sold.”
The private bush site backs onto a 50ha forest and bird reserve and came with a pre-purchase consultation with the builder, resource consent ready for submission, a geotech report, a topography survey, wastewater design, stormwater design, and even a tree and lizard report/plan.
Lanyon told OneRoof the vendors had had every intention of following through with the build but “as we are all too familiar with these days, things change around you that may force a course correction”.
“They really tried hard, having just about every possible consent and plan done,” he said.
The property was snapped up at CV by a “young gentleman” from the island starting out on his property journey. “As a budding builder himself he may even have a grand design of his own – he is a great guy, a Waiheke local and super keen to build his first home here on our much-loved motu,” Lanyon said.
OneRoof’s seventh most viewed home, and still on the market at the time of writing, is a big estate at Tauwharenikau in South Wairarapa with connections to the hairy footprints of hobbits.
The multi-million-dollar Fernside estate featured in Sir Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. Photo / Supplied
Filmed on Ferniside's private lake was a pivotal scene involving Gollum and the One Ring. Photo New Line
Director Sir Peter Jackson used Fernside estate, between Greytown and Featherstone, as the backdrop to some of the scenes in his Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, including the pivotal moment when Gollum first sets eyes on the One Ring.
The current owners previously told OneRoof famous cast members, including Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood, stayed at the mansion during filming and signed a visitors’ book that would stay with the property.
Around 4.8ha of gardens were restored on the property, which now has a garden of national significance designation.
Two properties in Titirangi, in West Auckland, also received a lot of online attention, one of them with challenges and the other with connections to New Zealand singer Lorde.
Woodfern Crescent, in Titirangi, Auckland, sold for $810,000 after a huge surge of interest. Photo / Supplied
Woodfern Crescent sold for $810,000, well under the $1.35m CV, after being marketed by Glovers as having challenges and being priced accordingly.
The listing highlighted the property as being in one of the best locations in Titirangi with easy access to the village and quality schools.
The Hollywood-style home on Scenic Drive was owned by Lorde producer Joel Little. The property sold earlier in the year and features a four-bedroom 1970s house with a recording studio that has a secret entrance. “It was my childhood Batman fantasy come true. You tilt a book and the bookshelf opens like a door,” Little told OneRoof earlier this year.
Little and wife Gemma Robinson at the 2014 Silver Scroll Awards. Photo / Getty Images
“I produced songs for Taylor Swift in that room, as well as artists like Vance Joy, Imagine Dragons, Tate McRae and Khalid.”
Little and his wife Gemma Robinson told OneRoof that they had leaned into the 1970s vibe of the house, with its angles, and curves, updating bathrooms, flooring and finishes.
“It had the Hollywood Hills vibe – the pools, the views,” the pair said.
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