Buyers snap up Waiheke retreats
Purchasers at top end of the real estate market charmed by island’s ‘hippie vibe,’ writes Catherine Smith
Trophy homes are in demand on Waiheke Island, where agents report that buyers at the top end of the market are outnumbering those at the bottom.
Bayleys agent Mana Tahapehi told OneRoof: “At the top end, I would have more buyers with $8 million to $12m to spend than I would for under $1.5m. That’s nonsensical. How does that even work?”
He said a lot of his buyers were sick of popular holiday spots like Omaha and Mount Maunganui and were attracted by Waiheke’s “hippie vibe”.
“They used to come here in the past, or have been owners in the past and now want to come back.”
He said although Waiheke had changed a lot in the past 20 years “you can still find a beach to yourself”.
Tahapehi, who recently brokered the eight-figure sale of a luxury fivebedroom house on Ocean View Rd in Oneroa, said the challenge for buyers at the top end of the market was the lack of available stock.
“Both parties at that level like to do off-market deals,” he added.
Other agents have also reported a surge in interest in Waiheke’s luxury homes. Wall Real Estate agent Graham Wall said he had interest in a $10m property from people who simply couldn’t find anything to rent on Waiheke during the holidays.
With son Ollie Wall, he has just listed a sprawling six-bedroom home on nearly 1.7ha on Gordons Rd, at the secluded southern end of the island.
“I’ve got a buyer who choppered in to look at it this week and another couple of families want to do a syndicate.”
Eight years after hosting international businessman Tyler Brule, of the uber-cool Wallpaper and Monocle magazines, who was on the hunt for a global retreat (and wrote a “love letter” to Waiheke on the Financial Times that fuelled a high-end tourism frenzy) Wall is still the island enthusiast.
“There’s no place safer on earth, it just gets better and better every year. We just bought a little place ourselves and are looking for more. Waiheke is just gold.”
Another property the Walls are marketing — Lantern House on Sea View Rd — has attracted interest from international buyers who had stayed in the property, pre-Covid.
Wall said buyers with money were clamouring for specific sites. He sold a secluded house with its own sandy beach on Orapiu Rd, in Cowes Bay, in November for $7.75m, and beachfront properties in Onetangi are highly sought-after.
“There’s not a house on Onetangi beach that I couldn’t have five buyers for. The cheapest would be $5m. It goes up from there.”
A property listed by Hayden Ringrose of Ray White may be a good test of how much the top end of the market has moved recently. The twobedroom original Kiwi bach on the beach at Great Barrier Rd, in Sandy Bay, changed hands in March for $4.61m but the Australian-based owner has been unable to get back to NZ and now has it listed for $5.5m.
“The value is in the site [1214sq m] obviously, but valuations are telling us prices have gone up about 20 per cent in that time,” Ringrose said.
“We’re getting slammed when new properties come to market. There are a lot of off-island buyers: some returning Kiwis or people looking on behalf of overseas family wanting to invest now, some are Aucklanders and Wellingtonians.”
Kellands agent Martin Dobson, who brokered the island’s top residential sale for 2021, a $12m estate on Park Point, said he had clients with very specific wish-lists who haven’t found what they’re looking for.
“It’s the same with every market. Here there’s only so much land, but there does seem to be an appetite to get more remote down the eastern end where it’s a bit more secluded. A lot more people comment that they don’t want to get stuck in traffic going to Omaha or Coromandel. I’ve been selling here for 20 years, and I always say island living is like crossing Naples to Capri, just 30 minutes away.”
Tobias Roebuck-Ward of Waiheke Homes, who with husband Brad Roebuck-Ward spent Christmas Day inking a sale while glazing the ham for the family dinner, said the $2.2m sale was prompted by a season’s greetings text to a buyer who’d been looking for a second home for a while.
“Buyers rely on us to keep them posted.”
In June, Roebuck-Ward sold a clifftop home on Alan Murray Lane, in Oneroa, for $10.25m, another house with two guest cottages on Ocean View Rd sold for $9m in April, and the company closed deals for $8m and $7.5m in November.
Open homes last weekend had gone mad, with a striking architectdesigned three-bedroom home on View Rd drawing 20 viewers.
“These are all super-qualified buyers shopping with budgets of $5m up to whatever they want. We always have off-market stock too, we’ve got ones in Onetangi, one with phenomenal views in the $5m range, another new-build in Onetangi that’s looking at $6m. These sellers prefer a more discreet way of selling. Buyers are a mix of people who’ve always had a Waiheke home on their list, others are starting to think retirement. They’ve sold the family home in the city for $8-$10m, the market has rewarded them, and now they’re bringing their family for a decision on the holiday home for them all. It’s really nice to be part of that.”