As the first of Northland’s much-awaited Te Arai Links golf courses opened earlier this month, and prices for houses in the Millbrook golf estate near Queenstown climb beyond $6 million, buyers are searching for golf-side homes at more accessible budgets.
The newly opened Te Arai Links, south of Mangawhai – adjacent to the members-only private club Tara Iti, where vetted membership is capped at 300 and there’s a rumoured joining fee of around $400,000 – will allow a slightly more democratic membership. The first of the two courses by the surf beach will allow 600 members prepared to pay a joining fee of just under $50,000 and an annual $10,000 family membership. Only the rich and famous had a chance to buy properties on the Tara Iti course, with mansions now being built.
It follows the “golf home” trend that kicked off in New Zealand in the 1990s when the Japanese Ishii family created Millbrook, on the edge of Queenstown, a five-star development that now has more than 100 residents.
Bayleys agent Sharon Hall said she’s seeing that trend of buyers looking for green-side, rather than waterside, living spill over into her Mount Maunganui patch.
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“I’m not a golfer, I can’t hit that white ball to save myself. But I’m seeing a flight to golf course properties, as there are only a handful available.
The five-bedroom house on Oceanbeach Road, Mount Maunganui, with views across the golf course, goes to tender on November 3. Photo / Supplied
“I’ve watched Millbrook prices go up from $3m to $7.5m, even $8m as Australians come into that market.”
Hall, who is bringing a four-bedroom house at 210 Oceanbeach Road on the edge of the Mount Maunganui golf course to tender on November 3, told OneRoof that with beachfront increasingly hard to come by, buyers are turning to golf-side living.
Inside the grounds of the new Te Arai Links South Course which opened this week. Photo / Ricky Robinson
“The only reason beachfront comes on the market is death or circumstances changing, [otherwise] it’s held through the generations. Whereas the Mount golf club is more than just golf now, it’s becoming a hub for younger people since it began hosting international mindfulness workshops,” she said.
Hall said that buyers recognise that to build a 380sqm Oceanbeach Road house on a 827sqm site with a pool and spa would cost up to $12,000 per sqm today.
A four-bedroom house on the Jack Niklaus-designed Kinloch Golf Course is asking $2.595m. Photo / Supplied
“It’s bordering the ninth green, you have golf cart access directly on to the course, it’s the ultimate home,” she said.
But buyers from Tauranga, as well as Auckland, Wellington and New Plymouth are also eyeing up homes further afield, says Bayleys agent Helen Webb who is marketing properties adjacent to the Kinloch golf course, just out of Taupo.
“Only a couple of buyers play golf, the rest just enjoy the outlook, the scenery and environment. The outlook is so beautiful and they are big properties of 1500sqm,” Webb said.
One of her current listings, a four-bedroom 278sqm house with a pool at 14 The Fairways is asking $2.595m. She said an identical spec house by the same builder, without landscaping or pool, sold last year for $$2.445m while smaller properties sold earlier this year for $1.6m.
“A lot of the buyers are permanent residents, some are semi-retired.
“Kinloch has always attracted a higher calibre. It’s got a ways to catch up with Millbrook, but it will,” she added, pointing to the attractions of the five-star Kinloch Lodge where guests pay up to $1500 a night to stay in the villas and residents can make use of the pro-shop, café, spa and fine dining restaurant.
And in Millbrook, where the golf homes trend kicked off, Millbrook Realty agents Teresa Chapman and Melanie Hunt are asking $6.75m for a five-bedroom, 315sqm house at 4 Mill Green.
Records show the fully-furnished home on 1423sqm overlooking the Coronet 16 fairway last changed hands four years ago for $3.225m – less than half of today’s asking price. It has a 2021 ratings valuation of $5.37m. A smaller two-bedroom home at 11 Fox’s Rush is asking for offers over $2.7m.
The five-bedroom home on the exclusive enclave of Mill Green at Millbrook Resort, Arrowtown, has an asking price of $6.75m. Photo / Supplied
And in the posh beach suburb of Omaha, Auckland buyers recently paid $3.45m for a house on Mangatawhiri Road, adjoining the golf course, with a view of people teeing off.
Bayleys agent Victoria Turner, who marketed the property, said buyers were drawn to the rural views.
“You do see players on the tee, but it’s more about a big contemporary fancy beach home with that lovely rural aspect.
“People are looking for permanent homes that are really private,” Turner said.
Even homes next to lesser-known golf courses are in high demand. Susan Stephen, of Susan Stephen & Co Realty, said that a charming five-bedroom home on Oxford Street she is marketing with Kate Paterson on the edge of the Martinborough golf course in South Wairarapa is a rare find.
A five-bedroom home on 107 Oxford Street, on the edge of the Martinborough Golf Course in South Wairarapa, has a deadline sale date of October 27. Photo / Supplied
“They don’t come up very often, I think the last one we sold was about three years ago. There are only probably 12 on the course and they’re in very high demand,” Stephen said.
“That outlook is never to be repeated. It’s not just for golfers, it’s for people looking for a very beautiful weekender, close to the village,” she said, adding that Martinborough’s 2020 rating valuations have always been meaningless and buyers would be those looking with budgets of at least in the high $2m-range.
