- A luxury waterfront property in Omaha is being sold off-market by agent Di Balich.
- Omaha’s property values have surged 63% since 2020, with strong demand for limited prestige spots.
- Balich’s listing features a stylishly renovated four-bedroom house with expansive entertaining areas and beach access.
It’s worth around $8 million, is on the waterfront, and its sale is so hush-hush that agent Di Balich is only allowed to share the address with qualified buyers.
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Welcome to Omaha, the beach town on Auckland’s northern fringe that’s home to the well-off and the seriously rich.
Since 2020, the average property value in the holiday spot has jumped 63%, from just under $2m to just over $3m. Auckland’s average property value, on the other hand, has only risen by 12%.
Demand for Omaha real estate has remained strong throughout the boom and subsequent price slump, driven by the fact that there is only a limited number of prestige spots in the town.
Everyone there wants a bach that looks onto the beach, and they’ll shift from one street to another to get closer to their ideal home.
Omaha has become a hot property destination for wealthy Aucklanders in the last six years. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Precision Real Estate’s Di Balich knows the “Omaha shuffle” well, and it’s likely many of the buyers she has shown through her latest off-market listing already own property in the town.
OneRoof was sworn to secrecy as Balich showed off the stylishly renovated four-bedroom house that leads to the dunes at the northern end of the beach.
In Omaha parlance, that is the older part of the beach, and Balich loves that the light-filled timber-and-glass house retains traces of the original Kiwi bach that occupied the spot.
Balich said it was one of around three “shadow listings” (her name for off-market listings) she has on her books. She won’t say what her clients are looking for, but she mentions that her off-market listings range in price from $7.5m to $9m.
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Last year, Balich broke Omaha’s price record when she brought buyers through a newly renovated home on Kutai Lane before it officially hit the market. The new owners paid $11.225m for the bach, the first time an Omaha property broke the $10m price ceiling.
The beachfront house Balich took OneRoof through was redone during the post-Covid boom, when prices were taking off in the town.
“It’s like your quintessential Kiwi bach but upgraded to the power of 10,” Balich said, adding that even at the newer end of the beach, houses can be 20 years old and no longer considered up to date. Buyers, she said, are increasingly turning their eyes to Omaha’s northern enclave to find what’s on offer.
“This end of the beach has more direct access to the beach than the southern end. The gentrification of this end of Omaha has certainly begun.”
Balich’s listing is a single-level cedar house with multiple outdoor living areas, a beachside deck, a covered courtyard in the lee of the house, and expansive entertaining areas, including a hot tub and outdoor shower, in another section.
It is set up for entertaining, and features a kitchen and scullery, plus a large laundry for overflow catering. The primary bedroom is tucked away in a quiet corner at the front of the house and boasts beach and headland views. Hedging makes the house extremely private.
She said there are informed buyers waiting to pounce on the right place. They are too busy to trail through regular open homes, so often brief just one agent with what they want, and wait for the phone call. “They want somebody to filter and match their brief with a property, rather than wasting their time. They have a very firm view on how their family wants to use a place. They are very, very specific on the features the property has to offer, and some have looked for two years.
“Both buyers and sellers are never too much in a hurry. They have an overall plan, and they just chip away until they find it.”
She adds: “There are legacy properties. I know three or four families in Omaha who have bought more than one property and started to amalgamate them to create the family compound, multi-generational.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Omaha
