Waitara’s $20m property boom
Waitara is in the grip of a $20 million property boom, largely thanks to the efforts of one enterprising couple.
After years of work, Richard Dreaver and wife Sharron Masters-Dreaver have created two subdivisions off Waitara’s Armstrong Avenue, which boast a total of 79 sections.
While some builds are finished on the larger 56 section block, about 40 homes in the area are currently under construction. Resource consent had also been granted for work to begin on developing the smaller subdivision, which will have 23 sections for sale.
House and land packages in the subdivision are priced from $430,000.
The New Plymouth District Council said the value of the consented construction work in Waitara, much of which has been created by the Dreavers’ development, had quadrupled that recorded in the previous financial year, which was about $5m.
‘‘The work includes 82 new homes over the last two years, many of them in new developments on the eastern side of the river, near the new Clifton Park sports hub,’’ council chief operating officer Kelvin Wright said.
Not content with selling off sections for new housing, the couple now have their sights set on building a new motel in the town.
‘‘Waitara needs accommodation,’’ Dreaver said.
He recently bought the former premises of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses on Princess St, where he planned to transform the existing building into a
14-room facility.
While resource consents have yet to be lodged, preliminary concept drawings have been delivered to NPDC.
Dreaver said he had been ‘‘blown away’’ by the demand for the residential sections, with 47 of
56 land parcels in the larger block being sold within 18 months of hitting the market.
Only two sections remain unsold.
‘‘It just took off,’’ he said of the sales, which are managed by his wife.
He said there was cross-section of people who had moved into the area, including those who had relocated from the South Island along with retirees and young families.
Dreaver believed the biggest drawcard for people to decide to build a new home in Waitara was affordability.
The demand for housing in the subdivision had kept construction firms busy as well as supporting local businesses too, he said.
Wright said house prices were also heading upwards in Waitara and at a slightly faster pace than either Bell Block or New Plymouth. The median house value in Waitara, in the year to December, rose seven per cent to $281,100.
In comparison house values rose by four per cent in New Plymouth and five per cent in nearby Bell Block.
‘‘More people are recognising that Waitara is a great place to live and raise a family and it’s still very affordable. That’s helping to drive construction, grow businesses and create jobs in the town,’’ Wright said.
Along with residential growth, a new retail complex offering 30 shops, a hotel and a cinema at the former Ravensdown site, on the corner of Devon, Smart and Katere roads in New Plymouth, is potentially on the construction horizon.
Warwick Foy, general manager of Taranaki Futures, said the demand for builders and skilled tradespeople to cope with new projects was nothing new.
‘‘We’ve known there’s been a big demand in the construction industry for ages,’’ he said.
Taranaki Futures partners with other organisations to run projects that enable practical learning opportunities. Included in this is an association with the Western Institute of Technology Taranaki and its joint Build a Bach venture.
He said the building industry offered real and long term employment prospects for young people and it was about changing the mindset of people who did not see it as a career.
‘‘We can’t all to go film school or law school. We need people who are practical too,’’ Foy said.
More people are recognising that Waitara is a great place to live and raise a family and it’s still very affordable.
Richard Dreaver