800-home plan for Warkworth project

A new fund to be set up and managed by property company Augusta Capital is planning its first residential land development project in Warkworth, north of Auckland, with the potential for 800 homes.

Augusta, listed on the New Zealand sharemarket, is undertaking due diligence on the purchase by the new fund of 40 hectares of former farmland near Warkworth for housing development.

Managing director Mark Francis said the development would create ‘‘super lots’’ to be sold to large housing companies for housing developments. Each super lot might take about 100 houses.

The development would also have a neighbourhood centre and other amenities like a children’s playground. The farmland had been rezoned Future Urban under the Auckland Unitary Plan and an application to change the land to residential zoning had been submitted. The land flanked the northern motorway extension from Puhoi to Warkworth, scheduled to open in 2021. ‘‘When the motorway opens in early 2021 we want to make sure housing is ready to go,’’ Francis said.

Warkworth, which has about 5000 residents, has been identified as a satellite town in the Auckland Unitary Plan, to take some of the growth in the Auckland region in the next 30 years. About 1000ha of land immediately surrounding Warkworth has been zoned Future Urban to accommodate the growth.

The plan expects that the Future Urban areas around Warkworth could accommodate another 7500 homes housing an additional 20,000 people. Francis said the Augusta Warkworth development could accommodate up to 800 homes.

‘‘This is not holiday homes. But part of the appeal of people wanting to live there is the access to beaches and the Warkworth township and Matakana.’’

It was first-home occupier type housing. Retirement village operators were highly likely to set up there as well. Supermarket giant Foodstuffs had recently acquired a site nearby for a large supermarket.

Augusta was planning a new fund, Value Add No 2, to purchase the land and undertake the development. The sale of units in this fund would be limited to high net worth and wholesale investors interested in capital gain rather than the steady monthly return that appealed to retail investors, Francis said.

Augusta has also been planning to enter residential housing development and establish a residential fund for retail investors to invest in, Augusta Residential, for that.

Francis said this fund was likely to buy one or more of the super lots and develop housing itself.