- A six-bedroom lodge in Whangapoua is for sale to international buyers for $6 million-plus.
- Owner Phil Creagh says changes to the foreign buyer ban may increase interest from wealthy investors.
- The property, ideal for foreign buyers, features a helicopter hangar and is near Whangapoua Beach.
A six-bedroom, five-bathroom lodge in Whangapoua, on the Coromandel Peninsula, is being pitched to the international market after the Government brought in changes to the foreign buyer ban, allowing foreign investors the right to buy a residential property worth $5 million or more.
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The owner of Te Punga Lodge is Auckland lawyer Phil Creagh, who says he has had a bit to do with the Overseas Investment Act and the Active Investor Plus visa.
He told OneRoof the AIP changes may trigger more interest in the listing, which is on the market for $6m-plus.
Creagh, who has owned the property for eight years, says people who come in on the AIP scheme have tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars, so buying a house in the $5m-plus category is not an issue for them.
“They might well be doing the AIP process because they really want to get their wife or their kids here.
The previous owner built a hangar and landing pad to accommodate his helicopter. Photo / Supplied
The vendors added a swimming pool designed by architect Gordon Moller, but the lodge is just 500 metres from Whangapoua Beach. Photo / Supplied
“We've had two that I've seen recently who are going down that pathway to have their son avoid compulsory military service.
“Germany is gearing up for compulsory military training. Wealthy people are sitting there saying, ‘I don't want my son to go into the army for two years. Let's send him down to New Zealand.’ And the pathway to do that is the AIP scheme.”
Creagh says “lots and lots and lots” of Americans are also interested in coming to New Zealand, “but then they tend to go through the knee-jerk ‘oh, we hate Trump’ and then calm down a bit. You know, life hasn't stopped.”
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He points out that while the scheme opens the door to foreign buyers, less than 1% of the houses in New Zealand fit the $5m-plus category, and the vast majority of those are in Auckland and Queenstown.
“In all of Coromandel, there's been five or six sales across the last eight months or so that have been anywhere near $5m and above, and you're dealing with Whangamata beachfront and things like that. There are not many houses that will be in that category, and in truth, they are too expensive a house to have just as a sort of plaything for most Kiwis.”
Creagh says his property was built by the late Steve Broadbent, a pilot who built the house to accommodate his helicopter, which he flew between Whangapoua and Auckland.
“He was able to park his helicopter inside a very large hangar/garage complex.”
The complex had a big hydraulic garage door: “He'd land, he'd put his helicopter on a little trolley, wheel it in there and park it overnight so you're not getting into the high wind conditions.”
The house is made of tilt-slab concrete, which the owner said would cost $12m to $14m to build today. Photo / Supplied
The house has spectacular views of Whangapoua Beach. Pboto / Supplied
The Creaghs were “not helicopter people", but the large house would suit someone who was.
The lodge is about 500 metres from Whangapoua Beach and in a small, gated community. The Creaghs added the pool and made the home more family-oriented, but Creagh said they were nearing 70 and wanted to buy somewhere closer to their grandchildren.
“It really should be owned now and taken to the next level by someone who lives there permanently, or the kind of AIP investor person who wants to have a lovely place, have it all fully managed for them - we have a complete team of people who manage it - and fly into Auckland, fly down to the property, have a wonderful time and leave and go home. That sort of thing.”
The property has a lot of lawn, and with an unlimited budget, Creagh said he might have rewilded the bottom lawn and turned that into something special.
The property is made of 3000 tonnes of concrete with tilt slab walls and has three kilometres of underfloor heating for the winter, and Creagh says the pool was designed by his friend Gordon Moller, who is a past president of the New Zealand Institute of Architects.
Creagh says a property like this, on a section worth around $1.5m, would probably cost $12m or $14m to build today.
He thinks Whangapoua is the best beach in the northern Coromandel and says the home, which is rented out as a lodge, has spectacular views and sometimes Kiwi can be heard in the bush. “You're not going to be stressed in a place like this.”
Bayleys listing agent John Greenwood thinks the property would be perfect for an international buyer from America or Europe rather than Kiwis. That's because it's back from the beach and Americans and Europeans preferred that, he says.
Where Kiwis liked to wander down for a swim, Americans wanted privacy, while Europeans liked the bush and the land, especially northern Europeans from countries like the Netherlands and Germany.
“They don't have that beachy thing where they are, and they're used to having nice properties in the hills. They are not into boats and jandals; they wear boots and sit in the sauna.”
Greenwood could see an international buyer coming to New Zealand and living on the property for three months and then renting it out for the rest of the year.
- 151F Te Punga Road, Whangapoua, Thames-Coromandel, is for sale by negotiation
