- Auckland has at least 106 residential helipads, with 64 on Waiheke Island.
- Helicopter travel is popular among wealthy Aucklanders for convenience and status, says John Greenwood.
- Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams’ Westmere helipad was approved despite 1300 submissions against it.
It might sound like a dream, but for an increasing number of Auckland’s wealthy set, having a helipad on your doorstep and travelling by helicopter is a reality.
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In Auckland alone, there are at least 106 residential helipads, and 64 on Waiheke Island, as of mid-2025.
Someone who knows about private helicopter transport through his work is Bayleys Auckland senior agent John Greenwood.
Greenwood has flown with Auckland-based clients to locations such as the Bay of Islands just to look at properties for sale.
“If somebody says to me, ‘I want to fly to the Barrier [Island] in a helicopter, can you arrange it?’ I will ring the Heletranz people and say, ‘I’ve got four passengers and myself and we want to go to the Barrier, we want to stay on the ground for an hour, and we want to come back’,” Greenwood says.
Auckland now has at least 106 residential helipads, plus 64 on Waiheke Island, pictured. Photo / Getty Images
Former US President Barack Obama arrives at Auckland's Mechanics Bay for a private helicopter flight to Northland with Sir John Key. Picture / Brett Phibbs
“They will then quote me that price, and I naturally pass it on to the person who wants to do it. Whereas if that person owns their own helicopter, they will say to me, ‘I will pick you up in my helicopter or meet me at Albany, or Onehunga or Mechanics Bay, and we’ll go in my helicopter’. It’s a lot cheaper.”
In the 1960s, after Pauanui, on the Coromandel Peninsula, was developed around an airfield, planes became the mode of transport du jour for wealthy Kiwis. But Greenwood says helicopter travel is now the preferred way of getting to the bach, a business meeting or client lunch.
The big change, though, has been the move from commercial flights to private ones, with rich-listers now more likely to use their own chopper than hire one. “A lot of the people who are buying property at that [$10m-plus] level have their own helicopter.”
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It seems having access to a helicopter in your backyard is as much about status as it is about convenience. “It’s like when people ask me, ‘Why on earth would they pay $20m for that [house]?’. The answer is because they can,” Greenwood told OneRoof.
“They [the elite] will say that it [the helicopter] is for business, but there would be very few of those ... most of it would be recreation.”
It’s certainly convenient, whatever the reason, Greenwood says. “If someone lived in Herne Bay and they’ve got a property on Waiheke Island, that is definitely a convenient way to go if you can afford it.”
There are several ways to make use of a helipad at a private property. The homeowner might own a helicopter (a new luxury model EC130 costs $7m, a used one about $3m) and hire a pilot when they want to fly, or they have licence, and they fly it themselves.
The multimillion-dollar Westmere home built by Mowbray and Williams. The couple have gained approval for a helipad at the property. Photo / Alex Burton
Greenwood says there are advantages to owning a helicopter - either on your property or at a commercial airfield. Hiring a helicopter for a flight will cost several thousand, compared to $700 for a pilot, fuel and maintenance for your own private helicopter.
Without a helipad, residents who want to travel by helicopter must drive to the chopper’s base, which in Auckland could take half an hour alone.
“Being fair to the high net-worthers, time is one of the things that a lot of them don’t have. It is convenient, and it does save time.”
Greenwood says the application for resource consent for a helipad, which could be concrete or grass, could be an expensive exercise involving planners and potentially lawyers. “The consenting process is time and money.”
In the case of rich-listers Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams, their application for a helipad at their $24m Westmere home attracted 1300 submissions against it and prompted a six-day public hearing in May 2025.
Despite Auckland Council recommending the application be declined, independent commissioners concluded the noise effects from helicopter take-offs and landings at the prestigious Cox’s Bay address would not be unreasonable.
They approved two take-offs and landings per day in the residential zone, much to the dismay of neighbours.
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