- Di Balich, known as the “Silver Fox”, has sold many of Omaha’s most expensive homes, including a record $11.225m sale.
- Omaha’s average property value has increased by 8% in the last year, reaching $3.14m.
- Balich is also known for her love of cars and runs the Matakana Coffee and Cars event.
In the rich-lister beach town of Omaha, on Auckland’s northern fringe, Precision Real Estate agent Di Balich is known as the “Silver Fox”.
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Most Omaha residents will know her from her headline sales. In the last three years, she has sold many of the town’s most expensive homes, including one for a record-breaking $11.225 million.
Her sale of Paul Henry and Diane Foreman’s “humble little” bach on Karahu Lane in 2020 for $7.35m was a record, and a sign that Omaha’s housing market was about to surge.
Six years on, and prices are still climbing. The latest OneRoof-Valocity house price figures show Omaha’s average property value has jumped by 8% in the last 12 months to $3.14m.
Balich reckons there are places on the beach that could fetch $18m if the owners ever wanted to part with them.
Balich sold Paul Henry and Diane Foreman’s bach on Karahu Lane in 2020 for $7.35m. Photo / Supplied
Balich set the record with the sale of a bach on Kutai Lane for $11.225m. This picture of the property was taken when it last sold, in 2022. Photo / Supplied
She is a striking figure around Matakana and Omaha. She’s sharply dressed and drives the kind of cars James Bond would kill to own. And she’s an accomplished musician; she plays the cello and the drums, and, in another life, she sang with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
Cars are her weak spot, though. “I’d be a wealthy woman if I didn’t like cars,” Balich told OneRoof as she showed off her latest wheels, a black Aston Martin Vantage. The QB number plate, complete with crown and bee icons, says it all.
She’s been known to drive American muscle cars, E-type Jags, and a Morgan Plus 4, among others. Currently, her garage also holds a Mercedes ute (for work) and an amphibious boat (for puttering on the water to Little Barrier Island Te Hauturu-o-Toi).
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“I have been a car nut ever since I was a kid. My dad was an aficionado of vehicles.”
She runs the semi-monthly Matakana Coffee and Cars event, a sort of small-scale Beach Hop where locals admire each other’s wheels and head out on a car cruise.
OneRoof met Balich at her patch last month as she was preparing one of her quiet listings. The four-bedroom house at the northern end of the beach was meticulously renovated by the owners, who bought it in 2019 for $3.8m.
Balich said buyers love the older end of the beach, where this property sits, because the sections were much larger (this one sits on over 1200sqm) and the beachfront ones open directly onto the dunes, without a public walkway in front.
She calls the makeover of the 1980s house a complete “reimagination” within the original footprint. The owners added a new kitchen, oak flooring, designer lighting and luxury bathrooms inside, and new decks, covered loggias and landscaping outside.
The garage was turned into a guest cabana, opening to a huge outdoor dining space, and there’s an outdoor shower and a sauna. “It is in keeping with the charm and era of when it was built. It is like your quintessential Kiwi bach but upgraded to you know the power of 10,” Balich said.
“It caters for friends and family. You could put 30 people in there, and each would find their own space.”
People would never guess what she is trading, as about three or four of her most exclusive sales each year are under-the-radar properties that never make the open market. She just taps people who have been waiting for the right place to buy.
Balich on the drums in 2021. Photo / Fiona Goodall
“At the upper end, it is all about relationships; people have an affinity for different agents. They do not want their properties bandied about willy-nilly.”
Of her chosen profession, she said: “You meet nice people; you see nice homes. It keeps the dendrites connected.” She laughs that competing real estate agents might be waiting a long time for her to fall off her perch.
Back when she started, the beach town was still evolving from the original modest baches. The “new end” was just coming into its own as city people like former Prime Minister Sir John Key and fashion designer Dame Trelise Cooper started building their architect-designed spreads, a far cry from the fibro self-builds and Lockwood homes in the original subdivision. Her first sales were for $1.5m.
“When I first started here, there were about 40 or 45 properties for sale. It was the hangover from the GFC. People had to be really interested in Omaha to invest up here because it did not have the same value perception as it does today,” she said.
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