Iconic surf 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.
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.
Spokesman from the Far North District Council Ken Lewis said it was too soon to speculate on Elliot Bay’s beach access.
‘‘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.
A Far North resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said ‘‘mates of Abramov’’ had been spied flying around Elliot Bay in a helicopter and that 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.