New Zealand’s most expensive baches

Analysis of bach sales by OneRoof and its data partner Valocity found a swag of coastal properties on Waiheke Island and in Omaha that have sold for upwards of $7 million.

And agents spoken to by OneRoof believe that such is the demand for beach real estate in New Zealand at the top of the market, it won’t be long before we see sales of $20m and above.

The OneRoof-Valocity analysis looked at residential sales in more than 250 coastal locations around New Zealand.

It found an explosion in second home purchases in beach spots in the months after the first Covid lockdown was lifted, with Kiwis spending $14 billion on coastal property since June 2020.

The buying spree, fuelled by low interest rates and the closure of New Zealand borders, contributed to a huge lift in beach town property values, with house prices in some of the more popular locations rising by more than $500,000 post Covid.

The highest prices were paid for properties on Waiheke Island and Omaha, as well as Coromandel beach towns popular with wealthy Aucklanders.

Two luxury beach pads in Oneroa, on Waiheke Island, are top of the rankings with purchase prices of $10.25 million each.

One a Hamptons-inspired house on Ocean View Road, in Oneroa, sold in November last year while the other, a modern cliff-top estate on Alan Murray Lane, sold in June the same year.

The Bayleys agent who brokered the Ocean View Road deal, Mana Tahapehi, said that he had had serious interest in the property within days of it hitting the market. “This one pretty well ticked all the boxes,” he said.

The 1171sqm coastal property came with a three-bedroom 292sqm house and a two-bedroom guest house and was designed by Christian Anderson with interiors by designer Jen Pack.

Waiheke Homes co-owner Tobias Roebuck-Ward, who brokered the deal the striking modern house on 1.5 hectares on Alan Murray Lane, told OneRoof at the time of the sale that the property had been shown to a limited group of qualified buyers.

“We had three qualified buyers who we work with, we knew they had budgets of $8m to $10m, and since then we’ve had calls from two more who wanted to buy,” he said of the property.

Three other Waiheke “baches” made the top 10.

A three-bedroom Fearon Hay architect-designed house glass pavilion with a pool on Newton Road, between Oneroa and Sandy Bay, sold for $9m in April this year.

Sold in November 2021 for $10.25 million: Ocean View Road, Oneroa, Waiheke Island. Photo / Supplied

Sold in March 2021 for $9.1 million: Kutai Lane, Omaha, Auckland. Photo / Supplied

Kellands agent Charles Collins, who brokered the deal, said the owners had completely upgraded the landscaping on the 2032sqm site, adding a pool and freshening up the interiors since they bought the property five years ago for $6m.

A headline-catching three-bedroom home, known as Lantern House, was sold by the founders of the iconic Oyster Inn for $8.45m in March this year and a three-bedroom 259sqm house with its own private beach and beach shed sold for $8.225m in October last year in a deal brokered by Collins and Martin Dobson.

But Graham Wall of Wall Real Estate, who is currently marketing a beach-front place on Palm Beach that he thinks will fetch well over $10m, reckons Waiheke is still under-valued.

“To quote [economist] Cameron Bagrie, people have gone from having a bach on their bucket list, to their f***-it list. They’re saying ‘you only live once, f**k it, let’s do it’,” Wall said.

“This is the most valuable, the best investment in residential property in New Zealand – indeed all the southern hemisphere. Waiheke is ready to ‘pop’ again. It is a lot of money, but next time [some of those properties] will be for sale is in 30 years’ time. So sometimes you have to pay next year’s prices this year.”

He added: “You cannot pay too much.”