Wanaka’s housing market keeps getting bigger and better, with ever bigger dollar signs attached to listings, says Phil Gilchrist of Prime Real Estate.
The South Island town and its surrounds are attracting Queenstown money as wealthy people look for a more laidback lifestyle away from the international hubbub and congestion of the neighbouring tourist destination.
Gilchrist recently sold a country estate on Stevenson Road, which had been marketed in the $10 million price bracket, and is selling a similar-sized property that was the wedding venue of Richie and Gemma McCaw.
The 40-hectare property he sold consists of three linked pavilions, five-metre-high ceilings, a tennis court, a heated swimming pool, and a helicopter hangar.
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It was bought by a Wanaka local and while Gilchrist would not reveal the exact price, he said the owner was happy.
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The four-bedroom house was of high enough calibre it could have fitted in on the recent TV show New Zealand’s Best Homes, hosted by UK real estate celebrity Phil Spencer. But Gilchrist says the size of the properties on offer at Wanaka’s top level is attracting wealthy buyers who value privacy.
“Most people that are wealthy are busy people and they want to be able to just come and fly into the airport, get to their holiday place and just relax,” he says.
While the 39-hectare Stevenson Road property did not have lake views, lake views did push up prices. “Every sale seems to be another step up in the higher end,” Gilchrist says.
A luxury home on a sprawling 39ha estate on Stevenson Road, in Wanaka, recently sold for a top price. Photo / Supplied
The property was billed as a private haven. Photo / Supplied
A recent Queenstown-Lakes listing with a lake view, 280 Wanaka-Mount Aspiring Road, was being pitched to buyers with $20m-plus to spend.
Dubbed Barn Pinch, the 34ha plot of land is up for grabs for the first time in 100 years and is not far from the spot where one of the world’s richest men, tech billionaire and Trump supporter Peter Thiel, wanted to build a house (although recent media reports suggest Thiel has abandoned his plans).
Gilchrist, who is co-marketing Barn Pinch with Bayleys Real Estate, says the property comes with 1970s-era architecturally designed house overlooking the lake. The advantage of the house, however, is that it exists.
Someone applying to build on a rural block of land so close to the town and the lake would likely be knocked back these days, says Gilchrist, but the fact Barn Pinch has a pre-existing house means renovating, restoring, or even rebuilding will be much easier.
Barn Pinch is where Richie and Gemma McCaw tied the knot. Photo / Supplied
The estate overlooks the lake. Photo / Supplied
Barn Pinch is being sold by tender with an October deadline to give people enough time to do their due diligence, Gilchrist says.
The property also comes with The Olive Grove wedding venue, which has seen many high-profile ceremonies, including that of Richie and Gemma McCaw, and which has a lease due to end in September.
Gilchrist says the stretch of land from Wanaka to Glendhu Bay is a magnet for the uber-wealthy, and includes Whare Kea Lodge, built by the Australian Myer family, and the house once owned by country music icon Shania Twain.
Gilchrist says the area is popular because owners are able to come and go without anyone knowing. “They don’t want people knowing what they’re doing, they don’t want photographers watching them,” he says.
“The way we see it, there’s going to be some very heavy hitters buying these sort of properties in the future.”
He adds: “You’d be surprised how many Kiwis have got a lot of money. There is a phenomenal amount of money in New Zealand you just don’t hear about.”
Gilchrist has been selling real estate in Wanaka for 20 years, during which time the town has enjoyed phenomenal growth. However, strict building rules mean the view over the lake and to the mountains is protected. “That’s why it’s very hard for people like Peter Thiel to get their properties through.”
The town still had plenty of development room going back in an easterly direction, however, and it had the ability to develop without the physical constraints and congestion problems of nearby Queenstown.
Tech billionaire and Queenstown-Lakes resident Peter Thiel has reportedly given up on plans for a new home near Glendhu Bay. Photo / Getty Images
“Here, it’s a very big, open bowl and you get tons of sunshine, the lake’s warmer, all those sorts of things.”
He expects Wanaka to outgrow Queenstown in years to come, noting that the money was already heading Wanaka’s way.
Wanaka still had a laidback feel, despite many new subdivisions going up, whereas Queenstown had become an international tourist destination, he says.
While the top end of the real estate market was thriving, the lower end was not exactly cheap. Gilchrist says people would be hard-pressed to find anything for under $1m, and those prices tended to be in the suburbs on the fringe of town.
A four-bedroom house in a new subdivision in town would cost more like $1.5m, and properties with lake views went up from there.
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