Many new sites open up for large-scale Auckland housing developments

The stream of residential development opportunities becoming available on Auckland’s urban fringes is about to become a torrent – with four new substantial subdivision sites being placed on the market for sale simultaneously.

The four sites on the city’s urban fringes have the capacity to accommodate hundreds of new dwellings – ranging in scope from “first home buyer” apartment style units through to rambling lifestyle blocks.

The four bare land holdings which have all just come on to the market feature:

• a 90ha development site in Redvale just north of the city – offering 59 sections in a staged development. The property borders on to the coastal WeitiBay subdivision where substantial sections have been selling with million-dollar price tags at a frantic pace.
• a 4300sq m development site overlooking State Highway One just north of the city. The location is zoned “mixed housing suburban” under the proposed Auckland Unitary Plan – allowing for a density of one dwelling per 200 square metres.
• a 4.2ha rural property at Paerata near Pukekohe – classified under Auckland Council’s special housing designation within the Wesley zone which will contain some 4500 homes on completion; and
• a 3694sq m corner site in residential Papakura on the city’s southern fringe – with the potential to bulldoze the existing dated dwellings and replace them with multi-level terraced units on 200sq m plots.

All four properties are being marketed by Bayleys. Three of the properties are being sold through tender, while the Paerata landholding has a price tag of $3.3 million plus GST.

Bayleys senior research analyst Ian Little says the four sites being marketed represent a clear escalation in the trend of Auckland’s urban expansion – with developers seeking large land blocks on which to build mid-size and large scale residential projects.

“Developers are keen to be involved in the wave of residential development identified under the Auckland Housing Accord which came into effect at the end of last year,” Mr Little says.

“Large landholdings within the just-announced 80 special housing areas identified under the accord are limited however. As a result, other vendors with landholdings elsewhere on Auckland’s urban fringe have taken advantage of the opportunity by offering alternative locations suitable for large-scale residential development.

“We’re not talking four or five houses on a couple of quarter acre plots – but many hundreds of dwellings.”

A government report into residential land development and housing affordability in Auckland noted that residential construction had moved rapidly from city and urban locations to areas on the city’s rural fringes such as where the four landholdings are located.

The report – compiled by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment – highlighted that: “Until 2003, about 66% of each year’s new dwellings [in Auckland] were located in established urban areas. Since then, that share has declined to 51%. The fastest growth over the last three years has occurred in the urban periphery.”

“The 2002 year was the last in which new dwellings consented in urban area outnumbered those further out.”

Mr Little expects the four locations being sold will attract interest from both experienced developers who will purely acquire the necessary council consents, then subdivide the land and look to on-sell the resulting smaller sections, as well as from established home construction  firms such as those already operating in existing suburban expansion hubs such as Hobsonville Point, Millwater, and Flat Bush.

“Auckland Council, through the housing accord, has already outlined its enthusiasm for pushing through new build development applications as fast as possible. I believe it would be perfectly reasonable to see the first of these four sites being remodeled and built on as early as mid-2016,” he said.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment reports supports this, citing: “Auckland Council has acknowledged (land supply) shortfalls and is working both to identify new greenfield areas for inclusion in the pipeline, and to fully zone and service the areas already in the pipeline so that they are ready for subdivision as soon as possible.”

“The private sector, that is land developers and builders, must then do the rest.”

Freelance writer Jody Robb is funded by Bayleys Real Estate.