Ngāti Whātua to launch second stage of its North Shore residential development soon

Tuesday, 6 October 2020

Property analysts are predicting New Zealand's beach towns will soon become 'zoom towns' as remote working and cheaper property prices attract city workers out to the coast.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei is aiming to launch the second stage of its residential development at Oneoneroa on Auckland’s North Shore before the end of the year.

General manager Neil Donnelly of its commercial arm Whai Rawa said the company would like to start construction of 15 terraced houses in stage 2 before the end of the year and have the homes completed before Christmas next year.

In stage one the thirteen two to four-bedroom terraced houses had sold. They were priced from about $950,000 to $1.5m.

“It’s really the first residential development in Auckland headed by a local hapū. So we’re acting as a normal developer in that regard. We are the first hapū to do something of that scale in Auckland.”

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The Oneoneroa terraced houses in stage one have two to four bedrooms and range in price from $950,000 to $1.5 million. Pictured a completed house in stage one.

A masterplan for the Oneoneroa residential development of 13 hectares, centred around a marine reserve, could include up to 500 houses, and was close to being completed, Donnelly said. Oneoneroa is the original name for Shoal Bay and sits between Devonport and Takapuna.

Whai Rawa had taken a conservative approach launching a small number of apartments at a time, he said.

The company was putting extra spaces in some townhouses like a half bedroom size where the extra room could function as a study, office, nursery, small bedroom or “just somewhere someone can go to get away from the family if we get locked down again or just an additional space in the same sort of unit.”

“We’re getting feedback, and we’re talking to people and buyers in the market all the time, and that is something that has come to the fore post-Covid, is that a lot of the terrace units in particular, particularly when the weather’s bad, is just to have a break away space or a dedicated space to work.”

The price range for the stage two terraced houses would be similar to stage one. Its tribal members had first rights to buy the terraced properties but none had taken that up.

The terrace houses in stage one were about 80 per cent completed before they went on the market. Whai Rawa generally preferred to build them first so people could see what they were getting, rather than taking a more speculative approach.

Whai Rawa did not need pre-sales off a plan before it started construction. The company did not use much bank funding.

Members of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei have first rights to buy the terraced properties but none have taken that up, Whai Rawa general manager Neil Donnelly says.

“We rely on our own balance sheet. We prefer to stand on our own two feet as much as we can,” Donnelly said.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei bought the land on the North Shore from the Government when the New Zealand Navy left the area. It intends to use the housing proceeds to support the social and cultural arms of the hapu.

“This development is intended to provide, if you like, a normal commercial return to help support other Ngāti Whātua initiatives.”

Donnelly said the hapū did provide housing for its members but that housing was concentrated around other properties it owned in Kupe Street close to the Ōrākei Marae.

Whai Rawa had also developed about 300 homes in Massey East in a joint venture with Fletcher Building. Completion of that development was close. The housing product was different and the prices were lower than Oneoneroa.