●uirky bach sells above ‘irrelevant’ RV
A-frame bach at Okawa Bay has ladder rungs to reach top level
"It’s where they can quickly scoot to at the weekend and play on the lake."
Bayleys listing agent Beth Millard
Alower North Island family have snapped up a quirky A-frame lakeside property for a price that’s well above RV.
They plan to replace it with their dream holiday home but for now, they intend to enjoy it and will continue to climb the ladder rungs to access the upstairs rooms, just as the vendors had for the last 50 years.
The Okawa Bay bach was put on the market earlier this year after three sisters inherited it following the death of their mother.
One of the sisters Sharon Hayes earlier told OneRoof it had been a tough decision because all of their children had also grown up going there.
But Bayleys listing agent Beth Millard said they were really pleased with the outcome and that they were passing the baton to another family. “That was also quite important to them,” she said.
The buyers had fallen in love with Lake Rotoiti and had been waiting for the right property to come up for their holiday home, she said.
Flat lawn-to-lake properties were in high demand, especially those like the A-frame property which had its own jetty, she said. However, they rarely came up due to them being tightly held and usually passed down through the generations.
The property passed in at auction last month and was then sold by negotiation. The sale price is understood to be well above its RV of $1.28m, which Millard had previously labelled “irrelevant”.
And despite these properties fetching millions of dollars, Millard said most of the lake properties were being bought as holiday homes and very rarely were they permanent residences.
The main interest in Lake Rotoiti properties was coming from people in Mount Maunganui and Tauranga who wanted a lake house just a short drive away, followed by Auckland and Gisborne residents.
“Wakeboarding and wake surfing is becoming really popular and people that are attracted to lake properties are generally into some kind of water sport.
“It’s where they can quickly scoot to at the weekend and play on the lake. It (Tauranga) is a quick commute — it’s only 45 minutes.”
There are two properties currently for sale in the coveted lakefront position and only six properties listed for sale in all of
Lake Rotoiti, down from eight at the end of January.
Sotheby’s International Realty Rotorua principal Shona Duncan said the standout properties on the waterfront were generally those on a freehold land title.
Duncan is selling a fourbedroom, three-bathroom home at 1/110 Curtis Road, in Tapuaekura Bay, which is also on the shores of Lake Rotoiti, has an RV of $1.29m and is being sold by tender later this month.
The retired Cambridge owners are selling their holiday home after 43 years, but have owned a property in the bay for 50 years.
“Tapuaekura Bay is a beautiful part of Lake Rotoiti, an exclusive enclave, lovely beach and crystal waters.”
A two-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 171 Tumoana Road, that was listed for sale at the end of 2022, is still on the market and priced by negotiation.
Eleven properties sold at Lake Rotoiti last year ranging from a small bach on State Highway 33 that went for $620,000 in April — and again seven months later for $635,000 — to a massive 525sqm home on a 8021sqm section in Okere Falls that still holds the record for the highest sale price in the area after selling for $7m in February 2023.