A vintage 70s brick and tile bach that's looking for buyers with more than $9.25m to spend is one of the few remaining old-school beach homes on Mount Maunganui’s premier streets.
These classic Kiwi baches on Oceanbeach Road and Marine Parade are becoming scarce as they have been renovated, rebuilt or redeveloped over the last two decades.
There are currently 30 properties on Marine Parade and Oceanbeach Road where, according to Tauranga City Council’s rating valuations, the land value is worth more than $5 million but the value of the property is under $100,000.
Of these older properties, the one with the highest rateable value is on Oceanbeach Road with an RV of $8.82m and $8.8m of that is linked to the large 1725sqm section.
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Wayne Shum, senior research analyst at Valocity, OneRoof's data partner, said the latest figures show there are still a small proportion of properties on these popular streets where people are happy with both the property and the location so haven’t felt the need to do much to them.
They were also properties that could be ripe for development, he said.
With some of the sites ranging up to almost 1800sqms, Shum felt they would probably be a bit under-utilised if a single house was to be built on them now.
Some of these properties date back as far as the 1930s and have stood the test of time as properties around them get developed and luxury apartment blocks have emerged fetching eyewatering sales prices.
Earlier this year Sir Colin Giltrap sold his 422sqm penthouse apartment in Mount Maunganui for $10.2m, which was trumped a few months later by the sale of a fully renovated beachfront property on Oceanbeach Road selling for a record-breaking $11 million.
One of the classic properties still available in one of the most enviable locations is a 1960s brick home set back on a large 1600sqm section at 61a Oceanbeach Road. The property has a land value of $7.62m and an improvement value of just $20,000, council records show.
This renovated home on Rita Street, in Mount Maunganui, recently sold for $5.5m. Photo / Supplied
This large home on 809sqm at 30 Marine Parade, in Mount Maunganui, is on the market for sale. Photo / Supplied
Ray White Mount Maunganui business owner Greg Purcell, whose agency is selling the property, said properties like this in prime beachfront locations with such large sections very rarely come up for sale and are often held within the same family for generations.
“It’s a grand opportunity for someone. I mean that amount of land – that stuff just doesn’t come up like very rarely.”
Any properties in downtown Mount Maunganui are a hit with buyers due to its being holiday destination in its own right, he said, but if you are wanting to be right on the beach then Oceanbeach Road is very hard to beat.
Purcell said there has been “quite a bit” of interest in the property and he expected whoever buys it to be looking to the future and wait for a while before doing anything with it.
“I think right now if people grabbed that they would probably wait a bit before they did anything... or not. Because the thing about development is so much of it is timing, how well you do out of it or not – so much of it is timing.”
Another property tipped for development is 30 Marine Parade.
The former motel is zoned high density so could lend itself to one or two expansive luxury homes, perhaps four luxury apartments with wider frontages to maximise the view, or even 6-7 three-level luxury townhouses.
While a vintage two-bedroom bach on Marine Parade sold for $7.65m in February this year after it was put on the market for the first time in 80 years.
Powers Realty principal Sandra Power, whose agency sold the Marine Parade property, said classic baches on these streets are now quite rare and they were starting to see a resurgence of people keeping the existing property and just making improvements.
A 579sqm property on Marine Parade, in Mount Maunganui, sold in February for $7.65m. Photo / Supplied
An example of this is the owners of the 1940s Marine Parade property who are renovating it rather than removing it.
“They are renovating it and making changes to it, but it’s quite cool that they are kind of keeping it as well and it’s nice that some of the heritage being kept.”
Power said Marine Parade and Oceanbeach Road will always be sought-after because of their proximity to the beach, but properties a street back such as Rita Street and Muricata Avenue are also still very desirable and seen as being a bit quieter.
An older home on a 1047sqm section on Rita St sold for $5.5m in August and another a few doors down on a 1317sqm section sold for $5.1m in April.
High-end homes in Mount Maunganui are still in demand, she said, as people sell their businesses to retire young and head to mount Maunganui for their dream lifestyle.
“They don’t have price barriers because they have got good money out of their business and they just want what they want and they are prepared to pay for it.”
Bayleys Bay of Plenty general manager Jon O’Connor said these types of properties on the premium streets such as Oceanbeach Road, Marine Parade and The Mall usually sell for between $5m and $10m depending on the location, land size aspect, the state of the existing dwellings and also the site and Geotech works that would need to be carried out.
People buying the older homes on larger sections usually had the money to be able to clear the site and build a new luxury home for themselves to live in, but some are also being developed into multiple units, he said.
“High density changes over time has changed the landscape significantly, but there are good controls in place to ensure the Mount maintains its integrity. As such, the opportunity to find these types of properties are becoming more and more scarce as they are developed.”
