A stunning piece of Great Barrier Island, in the Hauraki Gulf, has sold for the first time in 115 years to an Auckland buyer for $10 million-plus.
Known as the Gray Family Farm, the property boasts breathtaking views, two houses, wetlands and a small museum on-site.
Agent Mike Jensen, from Barfoot & Thompson, said he understood the new owner had no plans to subdivide but would use the property as a bach.
The 65-hectare coastal farm had been listed for $14.95m but Jensen said he was restricted in what he could say regarding the sale price for confidentiality reasons.
Start your property search
Read more:
- Is this the next Pokeno? 10 minutes from Hamilton and up to a third cheaper
- How couple turned $135,000 Omaha bolthole into $7m-plus luxury beach homes
- Divorcing or in debt: Flurry of listings reveal housing market's ugly truth
But he said the sale was one of two last week which involved buyers getting out of Wanaka, with them citing that the South Island resort town had undergone too much development for their liking.
While there was a lot of construction happening on Great Barrier, wealthy buyers still had a chance to lie low and live in privacy, he said.
The sale of a 8.8785ha north-facing section in Kaitoke Lane on the island for $770,000 last week was symbolic of this aspect of the island’s appeal.
“The people that purchased that live in Sydney and they have a holiday home in Wanaka but they are moving out of Wanaka because they can’t stand it anymore and they are coming here.”
Likewise, the buyer of the Gray Family Farm was selling holiday homes in Wanaka where there was too many traffic jam, said Jensen.
The 65ha property includes two substantial homes designed for off-grid living. Photo / Supplied
Inside the main residence where the views are breathtaking. Photo / Supplied
“They want the privacy and the space. Privacy is what everyone is looking for and they can’t get it there anymore.”
Wanaka has undergone much development in recent years. At the time of writing there were 167 sections for sale listed on OneRoof, some of them in new subdivisions, like this one in the subdivision of Northlake and this one in the Longview subdivision.
Jensen said people had gone to Wanaka because it was cute but the area’s expansion was bringing in people and mega stores which not everyone wanted, hence the popularity of places like Great Barrier Island.
“There’s a lot of wealthy people here but you wouldn’t think they had any money,” he said.
More wealthy people would be coming, he said, and more so with wars in Europe and Gaza which people found unsettling.
“I think we’re going to become a very wealthy island which will impose challenges because we need the infrastructure here for people to afford to live here as well, the workers and things.”
The property offers 1.4km of coastline. Photo / Supplied
The second house is also poised to capture views of the beach. Photo / Supplied
School rolls had doubled in the last 12-24 months and while it was hard to find a house for less than $800,000 there was “heaps” of work available because of new housing being built.
“There’s about five or six building gangs and you wait two years to get your hands on a builder.”
Some houses being built were truly “amazing”, such as one being built in Shark Alley in Medlands believed to be in the shape of a shark.
The house was covered in plastic currently but locals were watching with interest for the plastic to come off, he said.
While an Auckland buyer sealed the deal on the Gray Family Farm, Jensen said he had enquiries from around the world.
A OneRoof story from January told some of the history of the property such as the original farmhouse being built from the wreckage of a ship in Rosalie Bay in the north of the island and later being shifted to Claris, the main centre of the island, where it is now the museum.
The former owners, John and Shirley Gray, were from long-time families on the island and included in the sale was a “heritage hut” which contained memorabilia from farm tools to bullock yokes.
The farm looks out over the Pacific Ocean to Awana Beach to the North, and Palmers, Kaitoke and Medlands Beach to the south, with about 1.4km of coastline in between.
- Click here to find more properties for sale on Great Barrier Island
