Iconic beach up for grabs for $15m
Beloved Northland surf beach Elliot Bay has been on the market exactly a year - and so far no one has come close to paying the whopping $15 million price tag.
Real estate agent John Greenwood, in charge of selling the property, says it’s a tricky prospect because although private land, ’’the public are so very aware of it’’.
‘‘Whoever buys the farm whatever they do with it - will stir up huge scrutiny because there’d be an outright furore if public access was blocked,’’ he says.
The 710-hectare property runs from Cape Brett to the Bay of Islands; its Australia-based owner John Elliot is selling the bulk of the land to keep just 50ha for his family.
Greenwood says that unless a benevolent billionaire wanted to buy Elliot Bay as a massive lifestyle block, it would likely be developed.
Elliot offered the farm to the Department of Conservation last year, at market price, but DOC’s Far North operations manager Rolene Elliot said the organisation wasn’t in a position to fork out $15m.
The land and beaches’ future has since remained uncertain.
No official public access to Elliot Bay exists currently, but locals have always been able to pop a dollar into an honesty box, scale the style, and cross some paddocks to get to the beach.
Generations of families have spent summer holidays camping at pohutukawa-studded spots along the farm’s coast.
Greenwood says future beach access would need to be renegotiated with the new owners, but that a public access trade-off with the council could smooth the consent path of any development plans.
Former station Helena Bay, just down the road from Elliot Bay, was bought by Russian billionaire Alexander Abramov in 2009 and turned into a luxury resort last year.
Spokesman from the Far North District Council Ken Lewis said it was too soon to speculate on Elliot Bay’s beach access.
While the farm has pristine white sandy beaches and sweeping native forest, it was not a viable agricultural business.
The property gets lashed by sea-salty wind and like most farmland in the Far North, fertility is not its forte.
‘‘You’d have to have a pretty good farm to justify a $15 million price tag ... but you’re not going to extract much money out of 100 head of cattle and some bees,’’ Greenwood says.
There are currently 200ha of pasture and 500ha of native bush on the property, which is divided into seven titles.
Greenwood thought it might go the way of nearby Mataka station, which was carved up into large luxury subdivisions in the early 2000s.
‘‘You could easily put 20-odd properties on Elliot Bay farm and retain 300-odd acres in grassland,’’ he says.
A Far North resident, who wished to remain anonymous, says locals thought it likely the farm would be bought by wealthy foreigners.
Greenwood, however, says that while foreign buyers were possible, Elliot Bay lacked an ‘‘extreme exclusivity factor’’ they usually sought in New Zealand property.
❚ What do you think? Email us.