You won’t see much in the way of advertising for Auckland real estate agent Ross Hawkins’ new subdivision in Wanaka because 13 out of 14 sections have already been snapped up as a result of people driving by the site.
Another agent also reports sections in new developments are flying out the door with demand in the picturesque South Island town, over the hill from Queenstown, being driven by Aucklanders and expats.
Hawkins, a Ray White Epsom agent who is developing Station Rise subdivision on a personal capacity with a building partner, says people driving by see the sign at his development site, stop for a look at the plans then ring the number.
The subsequent fast sales reflect just how hot Wanaka’s housing market is.
Start your property search
“We haven’t even advertised and we’ve got one section left. That was just putting a container on site showing our site layout and what we’re doing here and it’s been selling like hotcakes in recent weeks – no advertising, just word of mouth and people seeing it.”
That doesn’t mean it’s only locals buying as Hawkins says along with people from Wanaka people from Auckland, Christchurch and as far afield as someone from Sydney have been in touch.
Wanaka has big growth to come and a huge future, Hawkins says. Subdivisions are springing up all over the place and a development now completed above the marina has seen huge take up.
“It’s very sunny and the lake’s warmer in the summer - you can swim in the lake in summer as opposed to Queenstown’s being quite deep and still very cold.“
Wanaka is also not making some of Queenstown’s mistakes when it comes to development, Hawkins thinks, such as making sure covenants are in place so homes fit the landscape.
“Queenstown has had a huge amount of development happen and some of it not very well planned, to be honest,” he says.
The town is also quite confined by the mountains but in Wanaka land is easier to build on.
“In Queenstown township itself everything’s up on the hills and it’s quite challenging terrain whereas in Wanaka it’s a lot more open and spread out.”
Millbrook Resort, also nearby in Arrowtown, is seeing huge interest in its properties, too, such is the demand by Aucklanders for this neck of the woods, Hawkins says.
“It’s amazing when you jump over to Millbrook how many high-net-worth Auckland people are buying properties these days.
“That’s just going crazy, and they’re high-end, high-cost properties.”
These $5m-plus homes are beautifully built and Millbrook has excellent covenants in place, he says.
Ross Hawkins: “It’s amazing how many high-net-worth Auckland people are buying properties these days.”
His development in Wanaka also has covenants he says will ensure a Millbrook-style for the houses, covering everything from roof pitches and colours to limiting building materials to schist and timber to make sure the enclave of 14 houses look nice in the landscape.
The sections have been selling in the $700,000 to $1.2m range but when the houses are built the finished product will be in the $3.5m range, which is a price range with a huge market in the area.
“There’s a lot of Aucklanders that can’t travel overseas so they’re spending their money on having their holidays here rather than going skiing in the States or Europe and they’re setting themselves up with a mountain house in Queenstown Lakes District and having that lifestyle here.”
First National’s Quentin Landreth agrees Wanaka is going off – Aucklanders and expats are buying up large but he’s even had a trickle of people from Queenstown moving across because they are sick of the traffic there.
“That’s what they tell us but there’s various reasons. Wanaka’s quite different.
“It’s a lot more laid back over here and a bit more space and particularly in winter it’s not so closed in with the weather.”
But mainly it’s Aucklanders coming down who are pushing the market and with such little stock and competition for each property it’s not unusual for prices to be pushed up 15 or 20 per cent.
“Because their market is similar to our market, price-wise they’re happy to pay the price.
A Wanaka subdivision being brought to sale by First National. Photo / Supplied
“Covid has proved they can move to Wanaka and still have their job in Auckland and so rather than sitting for two hours a day in traffic they can be home or riding their bike or doing whatever they want and maybe fly to Auckland once or twice a month.”
There’s also a good number of expats moving to Wanaka, including a couple of airline pilots he knows of.
“A lot of them come back with a bit of money so they’re not going back to places where they necessarily come from.
“They’re going ‘where would we like to live?’”
And people are jumping on sections as soon as they become available, he says.
“A good example of that is we just released two stages of a 140 subdivision (Pembroke Terraces) and the first stage was 50 sections and all those 50 sections were under contract within 10 days, and then we released another 20 sections and they were all under contract within another 15 or 20 days.
“The demand seems to be insatiable.”
Some are being sold to Aucklanders but some of the sales are to locals who plan to sell their houses to Aucklanders and then build themselves a new house.
