The wine is flowing on Waiheke, and so too is the concrete.
The scale of some of the building work being carried out in and around the island’s most popular beach spots is surprising.
Behind safety fences and hoardings on Miro Road, just metres from the calming waters of Palm Beach, construction tools are thudding as tradies get busy laying the foundations of what looks like the beginnings of a space-age fortress.
They have cut deep into the 858sqm sloping section, which was bought by its owner in 2020 for $1.22 million. Consents for the development, understood to be a multi-storey luxury home that cascades down to the road, were issued late last year.
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On Onetangi’s Fourth Avenue, excavation work, deep piles and retaining walls dominate a 2000sqm site in preparation for a new home.
OneRoof records show the owners paid $855,000 for the steep scrub-covered section in 2020. The land was billed for its potential to house a Grand Designs-style pad that would command stunning views of Onetangi beach. It took the owners 15 months before consents appeared in the records, and agents in the know suggest it could be another year or two before they can unpack their binoculars and take in those views.
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Around the corner, two large beachfront homes are taking shape. One is by top architects Nicola and Lance Herbst and is situated at the bottom of two steep adjoining sections next to the public toilets, the other is a three-storey wonder that has replaced a classic Lockwood home. The land behind both homes show signs of major construction work, with netting and steel pins evident.
Agents say the finished homes could well command the $10m-plus price tags that have becoming increasingly common on the island, but it’s the work that’s taking place on the sprawling beachfront estates that are hidden from public view that really raise the bar.
The first of the island's multi-million-dollar mega-builds to the late 2000s, when the super-wealthy started to eye up land in prime spots. One of the first was a mansion on Matapana Road, which was sold by financier Mark Hotchin in 2014 for $14.25m. It now has a $27m CV and a 817sqm house designed by Patterson Architect.
A construction site at the bottom of Fourth Avenue, in Onetangi. Excavation work has cut deep into the 2000sqm sloping section, which was bought in 2020 for $855,000. Photo / OneRoof
A large beachfront home takes shape at the bottom of two large and incredibly steep sections on The Strand, in Onetangi. The property is next to a public toilet and looks over a popular BBQ spot. Photo / OneRoof
Owner of Ray White Waiheke Matthew Smith told OneRoof: “People are fixated on the north side of the island, and they want beach access. That [Matapana Road property] had a beautiful white-sand beach, 4.5ha of land for privacy, half of it flat, half of it in bush," he said. “I would have thought today that you would be looking at $40m to $50m for that."
He said this spring he is working through a list of prime sites for an overseas-based buyer who has told him “price doesn't matter”.
On an island littered with wealth – Colin Giltrap, Graham Hart, Ben Cook, Martin Reesby, Michael Allpress, Christopher Luxon, John Hawkesby, Bruce Plested all have Waiheke homes – these mega-builds are shrouded in more than just scaffolding and plastic wrap.
Builders sign confidentiality agreements that prohibit them from talking to the media. Tradies are not even allowed to take photographs of their work.
Agents estimate the new mega-builds can be upwards of 1000sqm in size (the average Auckland new house is about 136sqm, apartments maybe 80 to 100sqm). Building programmes can last three years or longer, and build costs of $20,000 per sqm are increasingly the norm (that’s nearly 10 times the average build cost in regular New Zealand). And OneRoof has heard rumours of a three-year-long build on the island where the owners stopped counting as costs rocketed past $15m.
Secluded wealth: The view looking out over Boatshed Bay, where a large estate estate with a 817sqm luxury home has a CV of $27m. Photo / Supplied
Roberts Gray Architects have prepared concept drawings for a luxury home in Waiheke Island’s prestigious gated community, Wawata Estate. Photo / Supplied
Only on the island’s newest and most exclusive development, Wawata Estate, has the developer been more open. Buildings are capped at a still generous 400sqm to 500sqm in order to protect neighbours’ views and the carefully restored natural environment. Nearly half of the 25 sections are sold and work started on a couple of new homes, with designs by Herbst Architects, Julian Guthrie, Strachan Group and Francois Zab.
Smith, who has been marketing the properties on the 94ha gated parkland since 2020, said one buyer combined two sections to make more room for a pool and a second house for guests. Tantalising concept drawings on the architects’ websites show sleek pavilions of stone, textured concrete and cedar tucked discreetly into the sloping sections, surrounded by tasteful landscaping (top designer Jared Lockhart is the name commonly bandied about).
The developers have commissioned a series of concept homes to show on the property listings. 7 Tamihana Road (Lot 18) has an artist’s impression a four-bedroom, six-bathroom home designed by Gaze Architects, marketed with a $2.96m price tag for the land (the house plans, and then build, are by negotiation).
Another 2.98ha site at 10 Tamihana Road on the headland over Boatshed Bay asking $2.8m has a concept plan for the 3697sqm building platform by Roberts Gray Architects, one of two prepared by the firm for the estate. The X-shaped cedar-wrapped house has four bedrooms, each with ensuite, two living rooms, a wine cellar and pool.
Concepts by Gaze Architects show the four-bedroom house that could be built on a $2.96m site at 7 Tamihana Road on Wawata Estate. Photo / Supplied
Director and architect Nick Roberts emphasized the quiet luxury of these places.
He said the homes were designed to suit the topography and outlook of each site, and that the natural materials favoured by the firm – cedar, stone, copper and concrete – responded to the landscape. Inside, they favour materials like limestone, natural plaster and stainless steel, no bling or marble here.
“There’s a shift in the attitude to luxury. We tend to build and design for the landscape rather than the traditional image of a luxury mansion, this is respectful.
“We focus on the craft of the builders and the quality of the space rather than rattling off a list of materials. The care and craft of how it’s made and considered is what distinguishes these homes,” he said.
These projects, while big and expensive, are driven by the fragility of the special island – most new buildings and renovations require extensive resource consents for things like wastewater and reticulation – but also by the landscape.
Zab, who has been living on Waiheke for nine years, is about to start building his own home on Wawata and has a number of other luxury projects underway on the island.
A newly-completed four-bedroom house at 74 Burrell Road, Oneroa, is for sale by negotiation. Photo / Supplied
Inside the high-spec home that overlooks the bay at Oneroa. Photo / Supplied
“More than half of the project is done by nature, the sites are so incredible. I travel a lot but for the first time in my life I felt like I can die here,” he said. Consents and planning take time: it’s been two years since he and his wife bought their property but building only just started in February for the 140sqm guesthouse where the family will live while work starts on the 350sqm main house.
Their concrete home, burrowed into the side of the hill, is planned to blend into the land and be almost invisible, so will include a natural grass roof, thanks to extremely detailed work with a structural engineer.
“We’ve already spent a lot of money before you get out of the ground. Waiheke is expensive to build on, at each part of the project you have to pay attention to the details,” he said.
“Half the job is done by nature,” the architect said, before admitting that at the lower end a $7000 to $8000 per sqm build is doable on the island, but building with concrete and extensive earthworks can add considerably to the cost.
“There are two Waihekes: the one you can see and the one you can’t,” he said.
Occasionally Waiheke buyers are spared the trouble of building their own place when the odd new-build house comes straight to the market. Kellands agent Martin Dobson, who with Charles Collins is marketing a brand-new three-bedroom house at 74 Burrell Road, Oneroa, said the owner of the high-end house had built it for himself, not as a spec house.
He said putting a price on the house, which sits on a 1394sqm section and has a bespoke kitchen, underfloor heating as well as a fireplace, has changed since it was first listed in March.
“People are finding that if it’s already built to a good level, it’s way less than the cost to recreate it – and without the angst of things like wastewater or getting out of the ground.
"Potentially, buyers are better off to just grab them, as you don’t see that stuff to get out of the ground when you’re just walking through the house.”
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