- An overseas land banker is selling a prime waterfront site in Queenstown's Kelvin Heights after nearly 40 years.
- Agent Hamish Walker expects the $6.25 million RV property to sell for much more due to high demand.
- Foreign buyers, attracted by golden visas, are interested in developing luxury homes or tourism accommodations.
An overseas land banker who has held the last waterfront site in Queenstown’s Kelvin Heights peninsula for nearly 40 years is about to cash in.
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And, says his agent, foreign buyers with golden visas are hungry for these exclusive properties - and willing to pay a premium to own them.
Walker & Co principal Hamish Walker told OneRoof his client paid for $460,000 for 559 Peninsula Road in 1988, recognising back then that it had potential for considerable capital gain.
The 2663sqm site above the Bayview Reserve comes with a modest three-bedroom bach, which buyers are likely to bowl and replace with the type of luxury build for which Kelvin Heights is known.
The RV is $6.25 million, but Walker expects it will sell for much more.
The property at 559 Peninsula Road is minutes from the Kelvin Heights ferry to Queenstown CBD. Picture / Supplied
The bach is likely to be bowled and replaced with a luxury build. Photo / Supplied
Walker said the vendor had never lived in New Zealand and bought the property to sell in the future. "If you work out the numbers, it's not a bad purchase. The RV is in the early sixes and [the sale price] will be north of that.”
Walker said land-banking was rare in Queenstown in the 1980s. “The reason is we didn't get jets into Queenstown until the early 1990s. That's when Queenstown started to take off. This guy was ahead of his time because he purchased it four or five years before that happened.”
The vendor first visited Queenstown more than 40 years ago and felt a connection to the area’s natural beauty. “He had seen what was going on back in the 80s overseas, and he could see that purchasing property in Queenstown [would be profitable]. You can't beat the [property's] location. It's prime waterfront, Kelvin Heights. It’s an amazing opportunity.”
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The agent added that overseas buyers were looking at the property as something they could purchase with an Active Investor Plus visa - aka the golden visa. Interested parties included buyers Walker met at the recent Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
“There's a lot of interest in New Zealand from Americans at the moment," he said, adding that buyers from Asian countries were also keen to see what was on offer now that the foreign buyer ban had eased for properties worth $5m and more.
He said buyer motivations varied, from those who want their children to attend a New Zealand school to those who want quiet. "You have the people at the end stage of their working careers at busy corporates, or who have run quite large companies offshore.”
The advantages of New Zealand for these buyers are that they can buy freehold property, the exchange rate is favourable at the moment, and there's a relative lack of corruption here.
Another waterfront development site has been listed for sale at 317 Frankton Road, in Queenstown, after the owner changed his mind about building a holiday home. Picture / Supplied
Barfoot & Thompson’s Lawrence Yuan has another Queenstown development site for sale at 317 Frankton Road. Although the property has an RV of just under $3m, it should still be of interest to foreign buyers, because the cost of building a luxury home on the site would likely take the property above the $5m threshold for those with golden visas.
Yuan told OneRoof that the vendor was based in Auckland and someone he had worked with previously.
The vendor bought the 1662sqm property in September 2020 for $1.83m and had intended to build a holiday home, preparing geotech and traffic engineering reports, but had decided to focus on other projects.
He said that the property was in a high-density residential zone, which allowed for the building of holiday accommodation. "Queenstown has abundant tourism resources, and many buyers are considering developing a tourism hotel similar to the neighbouring Oaks Queenstown Club Suites and The Rees Hotel & Luxury Apartments or high-end Airbnbs. It’s a great opportunity for land banking.”
Yuan said the location, which is just a few minutes' drive from central Queenstown, was popular. He had already been approached by potential American, Singaporean, and Chinese buyers, with ideas to build a hotel or six to eight short-term accommodation units.
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