Matapouri bach prices soar – to $2.55m
If you’re looking to buy a traditional family bach at a beach in Northland, be prepared to spend big dollars for something very small.
A ‘‘quaint and homely’’ 64square-metre, two-bedroom bach a couple of blocks back from the beach at Matapouri, fetched $2.55 million at auction last week.
Real estate agents are now saying seven-figure sums are the norm for holiday spots in Northland. The latest sale, by Lyn Cochrane of Eves Real Estate in Whangārei, follows the sale of another similar 1960s bach at Matapouri six weeks ago, by the same agent, for $2.35m.
The purchaser of the latest bach, at 10 Morrison Ave, was an unlucky bidder at the earlier auction in Waetford Rd, one street away.
Neither property is absolute beachfront. The Waetford Rd property is one site back from the beach, while the Morrison Ave bach, which fetched a higher sum, is 15 houses back from the dunes.
Both sites are large and flat – the Morrison Ave bach, which is transportable, sits on 809 square metres, while the other bach section is 658 square metres.
There was no shortage of bids at last week’s auction.
Eves Whangārei general manager Tanya Swain says bidding on the Morrison Ave bach opened at $900,000 and rose steadily in increments of between $10,000 and $200,000 – with some 28 bids in total.
The property was purchased by an Auckland family who intend keeping the dwelling ‘‘as is’’ for the immediate future.
Swain says with a relatively low number of houses within the bay, Matapouri real estate was a stereotypical example of demand outstripping supply in one of Northland’s coastal settlements.
‘‘If we had another five Morrison Ave and Waetford Rd properties on our list we could sell them all within days for more than $2 million. We’re not even talking about absolute waterfront residences either; just anywhere within 200 metres of the sand is being hunted down,’’ she says.
‘‘It’s as if Matapouri has just appeared from out of nowhere to now be a prime and sought-after beach location, when in fact it has been a beach destination for generations.’’
Swain says most of the buyers on the firm’s database looking for homes along the coast out from Whangārei are Aucklanders.