A family who stumbled across a small ad for a section on Lake Rotoiti and built a quirky A-frame home with only ladder rungs to access the upstairs rooms is selling it for the first time in more than 50 years.
The relatively rare sale of a lawn-to-lake property with its own jetty comes as agents said demand for absolute waterfront properties on both Lake Rotoiti and Lake Tarawera remained strong and they have a long list of buyers just waiting for them to hit the market.
The unique Okawa Bay last changed hands in 1972 with the owner John Bellaart scraping together all his money, including the money in his three daughters’ piggy banks to pay for it.
Daughter Sharon Hayes said they were on a family holiday in Rotorua in the early 1970s when her father spotted a small piece of paper simply advertising a section for sale with a phone number.
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He made a quick call to find out the address and jumped on his boat to view the flat section surrounded by farmland. An offer was made and six months later the land was his.
“When we bought it Dad had to drive down a farm track and there was a gate at the main road and we would pick up the key from the owners’ of the farm to drive down the farm track to get to the section.”
Climbing up the ladder is the only way to access the two bedrooms on the first floor and another room right at the very top. Photo / Supplied
Bellaart, who was a builder by trade, then set about building an A-frame on the site, travelling from his Havelock North home with his truck loaded up with building supplies in the weekend.
He would usually drag one of his daughters along for the trip.
“I remember going as chief cook and bottle wash and I’m sure all my sisters remember going as that or a helping hand – ‘pass the hammer, pass this, pass that’.”
The A-frame was the first bach to be built in the bay, and a jetty and neighbouring boat ramp were installed not long after.
Fast forward 50 years and there are now about 60 properties scattered around the picturesque Okawa Bay. The original farmhouse at the top of the hill, which was the only other property there when the A-frame was built, has only recently been bowled and replaced with two lavish homes.
Flat lawn-to-lake properties with their own jetties such as this one in front of the A-frame are always in high demand. Photo / Supplied
Hayes said they made special family memories at the idyllic spot over the decades and her sisters and their families have enjoyed many summers waterskiing, taking trips to the hot pools and sailing right out in front of the house.
“Our children have grown up with it. It’s become a third-generation bach.”
Hayes and her two sisters inherited the bach after their mother Mary recently died, and they have made the tough decision to sell it.
Bayleys listing agent Beth Millard expected the next owners to be another family like the Bellaarts who wanted a lakefront spot where extended family members could pitch tents and they could all relax together.
The family has enjoyed waterskiing and sailing right in front of their bach. Photo / Supplied
“It’s real quirky but it’s cool and the fact that it’s next to where the yacht club boat launching is I think an advantage.”
The kitchen and living area are on the ground floor and the two bedrooms on the second floor and additional bedroom space at the top of the apex are all accessed via ladder.
Millard said lawn-to-lake properties on flat sections like 42 Okawa Bay Road were few and far between, and the demand always outweighed the supply. There are only eight properties listed for sale in Lake Rotoiti and the only other waterfront property is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 171 Tumoana Road.
While Millard would not be drawn on a price due to the property being auctioned next month, she said the RV of $1.28 million was “irrelevant”.
It’s also fair to say the new owner would have to do more than just raid his young daughter’s bank accounts to help fund it.
Millard pointed to the sale of a lawn-to-lake section, also on Okawa Bay Road, which sold for $1.8m in December 2021 as one of the more comparable sales. However, there was no property on it and the site had a steep slope down to the water’s edge.
“What sort of drives the results on the lake is we’ve got this database of people that are just looking for absolutely waterfront. If it’s got a jetty that’s a massive bonus.”
A large home on Okere Road holds the record for the highest sale on Lake Rotoiti after selling for $7m in February last year. Photo / Supplied
Since the start of January, Millard’s office has been inundated with enquiries from holidaymakers wanting to own their own lake bach and, she added, some were surprised to realise that prices of lake houses hadn’t eased up during the slump.
“A lot of it is the supply and demand aspect because there’s more demand than there is supply of Lake Rotoiti baches. They are generally held in the family for years.”
Eleven properties sold at Lake Rotoiti last year ranging from a small bach on State Highway 33 that went for $620,000 in April – and again seven months later for $635,000 – to a massive 525sqm home on a 8021sqm section in Okere Falls that still holds the record for highest sale in the area after selling for $7m in February 2023.
“That market has grown exponentially in a very short space of time. But I think it’s where the market should always have been, I think Rotoiti is the most magnificent lake and you are so close to everything.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Lake Rotoiti
