A new residential suburb for Auckland has been tipped on the site of a 191ha farm that hasn’t been on the market in half a century.
Longburn Farm, at 522 Wainui Road, in Wainui, just south of the Puhoi tunnel, has all the makings of a new residential suburb, says Ryan Johnson, Bayleys’ national director of commercial property.
The agent, who is marketing the farm for sale by way of tender, says the land is on Auckland’s northern transport corridor, is close to an existing new suburb, Milldale, and has suitable contouring for residential development.
The farm is split into 62ha future urban zoning and the remaining 129ha is zoned rural production. Johnson expects any new owner will look to create lifestyle blocks from it, resulting in one giant new suburb.
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“You'd have that medium density in the future urban rezone to residential component of the farm, and then the other 120ha, you could foresee that being rezoned to lifestyle blocks [with] a private plan change. If I had 50 lifestyle blocks to sell, we already have a list of 50 buyers who would want to acquire those today.”
Longburn is approximately 1.5km to the west of State Highway 1 and the Wainui off-ramp. To the North is Upper Orewa Road and to the south is Wainui Road. The 4,500-home development at Milldale being developed by Fulton Hogan is immediately across Wainui Road.
Current Auckland Council zoning unlocks the future urban land for development between 2033 and 2037. However, those timings are likely to be brought forward, says Johnson. “What we've seen from central government and Kāinga Ora engagement with local councils is those timeframes are being rapidly brought forward. An example of that is the Milldale development.”
The proximity to Auckland’s northern transport corridor is key. It’s minutes from State Highway One and very near the planned light rail solution for Auckland. The transit network map shows a station at Milldale and the network is expected to extend to Orewa.
“Growth is along those transport nodes and transport corridors. The fact that this (land) is adjacent to State Highway One and adjacent to what will ultimately be light rail is exactly where you want new residential development and communities to be built,” says Johnson. What’s more, identified developable land is scarce and Bayleys expects developers’ tongues will be wagging in relation to such a significant parcel of land coming up for sale.
In terms of interest for the current sale, Kāinga Ora has been "inquisitive” says Johnson. Other large developers are also doing their due diligence, he says.
Kāinga Ora recently paid $70m for a farm in the Bay of Plenty. It plans to build 1000 houses on the land. Photo / Supplied
“Inquiry has been strong from developers and land bankers, from all across New Zealand. Interestingly we’ve had 17 inquiries from Australia, which has been fascinating. The Australians and offshore buyers have been predominantly absent for the last two years. There's a lot of capital in Australia that wants to joint venture wit h a local developer.”
At the end of last year, the New Zealand Herald reported that Kāinga Ora had bought Ferncliffe Farm, in Tauriko, in the Bay of Plenty, for $70.4 million.
The government agency plans to build 1000 homes on the 95ha greenfield development site, 200 of which will be affordable homes and 200 public homes.
Demand is huge
Bayleys' head of insights Chris Farhi said when he saw the listing come across his desk he thought that he might witnessing the birth of new suburb north of Auckland.
"It's massive and super impressive, and right on the fringe of an actual current development," he said in a recent video blog. "The owners must have had a lot of courage to hold onto the property for so long, given the diggers were arriving next door.
"With Milldale and Millwater nearby, I think that can give the incoming owners, probably developers, some confidence around appetite and demand for housing in this location."
The success of Milldale will be giving potential developers confidence around appetite and demand for housing in this location, says Johnson. The demand and price points being achieved at Milldale are useful reference points for developers doing feasibility studies on the property.
Demand for new homes in the Hibiscus Coast is huge, with big new subdivisions bringing more and more people into the region.
New homes at Millwater, on Auckland’s northern fringe. Photo / New Zealand Herald
Thousands and thousands of new homes are being built in subdivisions like Millwater and Milldale, on opposite sides of the motorway, East Coast Heights (above the bus station in Silverdale) and Pacific Heights which overlooks Orewa.
But while prices on the Hibiscus Coast have risen substantially over the past 12 months, some agents say general demand is pushing up prices rather than the subdivisions themselves.
OneRoof figures show big increases in average property values over the last year. Orewa, which saw 568 settled sales, stands at $1.378m – a 23.3% 12-month increase - while Silverdale is higher still at $1.609m – that’s a 28.3% increase.
Nearby Red Beach, a popular coastal suburb nestled between Orewa and the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, has an average value of $1.454m which is a 30.6 per cent increase over 12 months.
Well-designed
Millwater, one of the more established subdivisions, began about a decade ago and is now about 85 to 90 per cent completed, says Tony Carter, Barfoot & Thompson’s Millwater branch manager.
The subdivision is characterised by big, modern homes. “The developer is Fulton Hogan and I think they've done a great job, they are certainly designed for living and enjoyment of living. There are lots of parks, it's very well designed,” Carter says.
There’s a school and shops and now Milldale, a master-planned subdivision across the motorway, is underway. Millwater is expected to end up with around 3000 homes while Milldale is expected to be nearer 5000, Carter says.
People moving to the subdivisions are not usually first home buyers but are often second home buyers. “They might have bought elsewhere, maybe down through the coast or the city, and sold those and possibly upgraded as their family needs have changed.
“A lot of the houses up here are bigger; a lot of the houses in Millwater are built as four or five bedrooms.”
The nature of the buyers depends on the suburb in the diverse Hibiscus Coast, Carter thinks.
“What we are seeing is there are some buyers out there who specifically want a new home so the new home price obviously is going to be pegged to what the what the local market prices are.
“They are going up so we have seen the area has certainly risen because of buyer demand and popularity - certainly it has risen because of demand.
Vibrant: Orewa beach at the height of summer last month. Photo / New Zealand Herald
“I think they are people that have decided they want a lifestyle change, they have sold in other parts of Auckland and want something nice and modern and fresh, just like buying a new car.”
In East Coast Heights, which is also popular, the house sizes and section sizes are a little bit tighter and there is less parking but given the development is by the bus station people don’t necessarily need a car, Carter says.
He is sure the planned Penlink – a seven kilometre, two lane highway connecting State Highway 1 to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula – is on the minds of buyers.
Geotechnical work is underway and when finished the Penlink, and the changes to the northern motorway, will make access to the area much better.
Thriving beachfront
Nick Langdon, managing director of Harcourts Tandem Realty, says developments are popping up all over the Hibiscus Coast which has numerous microclimates when it comes to real estate, from the numerous new builds to older, established homes.
“You're going to have a market of people who like they older established areas like the Army Bays or the Gulf Harbors (Whangaparaoa Peninsula), then you've got the brigade that's coming up that like new so they've created their own areas.
“Millwater and Milldale are quite removed from the other suburbs. If you think of Red Beach, Red Beach is its own market.
“Has Millwater, Milldale had an effect on Red Beach? I don’t think so. I think Red Beach was going to go where it was going to go anyway. It's a lovely suburb.”
Orewa is also its own market, Langdon says, offering a flatter environment for older people and there’s easy access to the thriving beachfront and restaurant scene.
“Ten years ago you could go down to Orewa on a Friday night and take your pick of parks. You go down to Orewa now and you're lucky to get a park on a Friday, Saturday night.
“The thing with Orewa is it's got a real holiday feel all the way through and we just happen to live there which makes us lucky, right.”
Langdon agrees the traffic infrastructure will bring more people north and says Warkworth is the next town to watch.
“The motorway is going to get up there and suddenly people will go ‘you know what, I can drive there, I can get that little bit of lifestyle’.
“As the infrastructure around these developments grows then people are going to gravitate towards it.”
