- Development land with an award-winning home in Halswell is for sale.
- The property could be subdivided into about 50 sections, with the house retained on a larger lot.
- Halswell has rapidly grown, attracting buyers with budgets between $900,000 and $1.1 million.
An award-winning trophy home has hit the market for sale in one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing suburbs.
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But there's a twist. The four-bedroom house sits in the middle of a flat 3.37ha block of land zoned for development.
Bayleys listing agent Chris Jones said 70 Quaifes Road, in Halswell, Christchurch, was surrounded by hundreds of smaller homes.
The house sits on a large lifestyle block and is surrounded by much smaller residential properties. Photo / Supplied
The vendors built the large cedar-clad home a decade ago when the area was semi-rural and there were no real neighbours to speak of. Since then, the surrounding land has been opened up to developers, and an entire neighbourhood has come to life.
“Those houses weren’t there when they built that house,” Jones told OneRoof.
Jones said having such a beautiful home on what was effectively development land was a “bit unusual”.
“Often these subdivisions have an older cottage on them, whereas this property comes with a substantial, award-winning home," he said.
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“Without ahouse there, it would just be developers and investors looking at it, butbecause it’s got the nice house, we’ve certainly got people ringing up going 'how I can do this development so I can keep that house myself?'. So, I would sayit’s a bit unusual in that.”
The lifestyle block could be bought and kept as is, but Jones expects it will be subdivided into around 50 sections, and that the house, if kept, would sit on a 1000sqm-1500sqm section.
“The house is too valuable to bowl - most buyers would be very keen to keep it.”
Jones expected there would be good demand for the property if it were to be subdivided and resold on a 1000sqm plus section because there were not many that size around. “They usually sell well. This one is next level again because it was only 2015 when it was built.”
The open plan living area includes a modern kitchen with oak benchtops. Photo / Supplied
He was unable to give a price guide for 70 Quaifes Rd, but indicated that buyers should ignore the RV of $5.3m.
Halswell is one of the country's fastest-growing suburbs and is set to benefit from a new shopping centre and two new supermarkets on or around Halswell Road.
Jones said the newer parts of Halswell were particularly popular with second-home buyers and out-of-towners with a budget of between $900,000 and $1.1m to spend. The high demand for rental properties also made it a good choice for investors.
“A lot of people who come to Christchurch from outside do love Halswell because it’s brand-new stock and it’s close to town.”
Harcourts salesperson Fernanda Hammett, who is based in Halswell, agreed there was a lot of demand for properties in the area because of its good schooling, proximity to the CBD and greenery.
But despite the numerous new subdivisions popping up, Hammett said there was currently not enough stock on the market to meet that demand.
Houses were often sold within two to three weeks of hitting the market.
An older three-bedroom home at 22 Cobra Street was proving extremely popular with first-home buyers and investors. The property is being auctioned next week and already 80 groups had been through the first two weekends of open homes. A modern five-bedroom, three-bathroom property on Findlay Street in the Quarry View subdivision that has an asking price of $1.53m is also under offer.
Hammett said what made Halswell unique was the wide range of properties available. They ranged from the high $600,000s to early $700,000s for properties in the older parts of Halswell, around the high $800,000 to early $1ms for more modern homes in the newer subdivisions, and up to $2.5m for properties with views on larger sections in Kennedys Bush.
“There’s a very different price range, but that’s what I love about it - because you can work with lots of different buyers in completely different price ranges. It’s not like you are going to Woolston and pretty much everyone is a first home buyer.”
- 70 Quaifes Road, Halswell, Christchurch, is for sale, deadline closing August 12
