Thames farm with residential development potential
A 188-hectare farm block overlooking an 18-hole golf course on the outskirts of Thames offers potential for large-scale residential property development.
Bayleys broker Ben Clare, said the northern portion of the existing dairying unit bordered the Thames Golf Club, while the property’s western boundary ran along one of Thames’ main arterial routes linking it with the Hauraki Plains.
Clare said the property at 9528 Paeroa Kopu Rd, on the southeastern boundary of Thames, was zoned for rural use, but there was a council consent in place permitting a two-staged development of the golf course boundary land into nine lifestyle-sized residential sections.
In addition, he said the Thames-Coromandel District Council had also identified the land should be rezoned for future medium density housing to allow for the area’s growing population, and to address the shortage of new-build houses.
The council’s spatial plan described the property as ‘‘unconstrained land (developable)’’.
Clare said the property’s topography featured a slightly elevated ridge line overlooking the flats below on one side, and the gently sloping contour bordering the golf course on the other, with several valleys of mature trees on the upper portion.
There was already an extensive internal network of partially metalled stock tracks linking the paddocks with the milking shed, he said.
The tracks could provide a basis for roading in a residential development, he said.
Bayleys broker Graeme Perigo said there were other income options for the land.
‘‘With consent already in place for the creation of nine lifestyle blocks on the northern portion of property, there is the potential to undertake a staged development of the greater farm over an extended time frame to deliver a long-term cash flow,’’ he said.
‘‘Of course, there is also the option of developing the medium density portion of the farm simultaneously over a much shorter timeframe.’’
Perigo said as a working dairy farm with a milk shed, effluent treatment and stock management infrastructure and two houses, leasing the property to a sharemilker could provide income while a rezoning application was being considered.