- Waiheke Island is experiencing a surge in multimillion-dollar luxury home projects by top architects.
- Builders report high demand for bespoke builds, with construction costs reaching up to $20,000 per square metre.
- Strong demand exists for architecturally significant properties, but available stock is scarce, leading to more projects.
Waiheke Island is swarming with tradies and big-name architects, but good luck finding them.
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Many of the experienced building crews on the island are working on multimillion-dollar projects hidden from public view.
Scores of luxury homes – designed by some of the country’s leading architects – are in the works in locations around the island.
One high-end builder told OneRoof that he was working on several jobs at once, and noted that some of the bigger sites were running with as many as 18 tradies at any one time.
“There are $10m, $20m, even $30m builds here. About 70% of our work is on Waiheke and I feel there’s actually a bigger market for super-high-end construction on the island than in Auckland,” he said.
Waiheke has become a magnet for wealthy buyers in recent years, leading to a change in house styles and building activity on the island. Photo / Getty Images
His own crew has worked with top architects like Stevens Lawson and Nat Cheshire, generally finding clients by word of mouth, and they have enough new jobs starting over the next six months to keep them busy.
He said building costs are generally higher on the island than on the mainland, but they can escalate on luxury projects, where clients request custom brass joinery from Italy or poured concrete for the entire house.
One build he was involved in needed a 40-metre crane on site for two years. He’s also had clients demolish a relatively new home because it’s not what they want or fly in 30-year-old native trees to create an instant native bush.
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Most of the work isn’t visible to the public, though. “You can’t see the houses from anywhere on the island unless you are in a helicopter,” he said.
Some of that “hidden” work is taking place at Wawata Estate, an exclusive development of bespoke builds on a peninsula between Onetangi and Palm Beach.
Ray White agents Matthew Smith and Ross Hawkins are marketing the final 12 properties in the estate. Smith said there was strong demand for architecturally-significant properties on the island, but stock was scarce.
“If you tried to buy a really architecturally-significant, really well-built place anywhere on the island, especially in the most desirable areas, you probably would not find anything,” he said.
A three-bedroom art-filled house at 100 Margaret Reeve Lane, in Te Whau, Waiheke, goes to auction in November. Photo / Supplied
This has led to an uptick in building projects. But, he said, these weren’t trophy homes. “The owners believe they are building something that they deserve. Something that suits their lifestyle and their taste,” he said.
“I guess they appear to the outsider as a trophy home, but to them, it is just what they have worked for all their lives, now they are building some quality around them.”
Smith said the list of high net worth people looking for property on the island was not big. “Everyone would know who they are and what they are looking for,” he said, noting that some wanted beachfront properties on choice spots like Oneroa, Onetangi, and Palm Beach, while others wanted private estates like Church Bay, Matiatia, Te Whau, Wawata, and Park Point.
The agent noted that while there were plenty of $10m-plus builds in the works, some buyers aimed to create smaller, simpler homes. “They do not want to spend time and money maintaining a big place, and they do not want to have too much room for guests. On one of the Wawata properties, we had a buyer remove a bedroom from the plans. He wanted to be able to say to people, ‘Sorry, we are full’.”
Herbst Architects has several projects on the go on Waiheke Island. Photo / Herbst Architects
Herbst Architects’ design for an island house. Photo / Herbst Architects
Mansions, as a concept, are still relatively new to the island. When Smith moved to Waiheke 30 years ago, luxury building on the island was just getting started, led by the 1990s subdivision of Church Bay Estate. Back then, modest baches and farms changed hands for tens of thousands of dollars, not millions.
“The super-beautiful architecture started about 10 years ago, but that is nothing compared to what they are building now. If people buy one from even 10 years ago, the house would be getting a significant facelift,” he said.
Smith has one of those early luxury builds on his books. 100 Margaret Reeve Lane, in Te Whau, is a three-bedroom art-filled house and studio designed by Hawke’s Bay architect Len Hoogerbrug. It has an RV of $5.35m and goes to auction on November 1.
Award-winning architect Julian Guthrie has just finished building his own home on Wawata Estate. He told OneRoof that the 200sqm property was “small” compared to the 500sqm-plus builds that dot the island.
Architect Julian Guthrie says his clients "genuinely want to have fun" when it comes to their homes. Photo / Julian Guthrie
Guthrie’s own home at Wawata Estate. Photo / Julian Guthrie
He has been building on the island since his first commission 30 years ago. “The land was $300,000, which was cheap compared to Auckland house prices. Now it’s probably one of the more expensive places to build.”
Guthrie said that many of his clients’ briefs were open. They prized clean lines, lots of natural light, indoor-outdoor connection, and sustainability. Above all, they wanted something that made the most of the view.
“They genuinely want to have fun,” he said, adding that they were comfortable paying up to $20,000 per square metre for their building (the architect was keen to emphasise that he also works on budgets half of that).
Most were not new to building and understood that their projects could take up to three years to complete. “It is definitely a passion project. It is exciting for them to have a legacy, something that they’ve brought to life.”
The website of Herbst Architects, the practice run by Lance and Nicola Herbst, highlights the scale of the work taking place on Waiheke. Project photos show builders busy at work: lots of trucks and lots of building materials.
Lance Herbst told OneRoof that clients will approach them having seen and liked their work elsewhere. And while there are always budgets, Herbst said he could not say what they were as they were confidential.
“By the time they are building this type of house on Waiheke, the clients are clued up. Waiheke has always been more resilient than the city. It is an incredibly beautiful island, right next to the city, so you can choose to live there and commute or use it as a beach house.”
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty Waiheke principal Chris Jones said that sometimes he has seen new owners keep an original bach on their land and build the mansion around it.
“If it’s a cute bach, they might relocate it or use it for visitors, retain it for character around the new build,” he said.
Jones told OneRoof he was always surprised at the buyers who “come out of the woodwork”.
“If you pay multiple millions of dollars for a piece of land and then $20,000 per square metre, then this is it for you,” he said, noting that, while none of these mega-properties go back on the market, if they did, they could fetch $20m or more.
- Click here to find more houses for sale on Waiheke Island
