‘Big deal’: Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron sells off huge island site and historic home

- The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is selling a significant Kawau Island property with six titles.

- The site includes the historic Lidgard House and offers waterfront access and development potential.

- Agent Nadja Court says the property is rare and ideal for a long-term investor or holiday home.

One of the most significant land holdings in the Hauraki Gulf has been placed on the market by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Barfoot & Thompson listing agent Nadja Court said the Kawau Island site up for grabs comprised six titles and included the historic Lidgard House.

“There are six titles running up the hill, but all with waterfront access. We’d ideally love to sell them all as one parcel,” she told OneRoof.

“The Yacht Squadron has been running regattas and carnivals and things out there for multiple years.”

Court described the sale as a “big deal”.

The RNZYS has owned the site at Smelting House Bay since 1989. The park-like grounds host regattas and youth sailing events. Photo / Supplied

“These things very rarely change hands, and it very rarely would become available for somebody from the public,” she said.

“It would be an amazing project, Lidgard House, to bring it back to its former glory. It’s an amazing building anyway, it’s solid, well-built. When you’re in there, you’re right on the point. It’s just gorgeous.”

She said the property would make an amazing holiday home: “You can get out there in a ribs (rigid inflatable boat), you don’t need to have a yacht or a launch.”

The titles were narrow and ran up the hill. A buyer could purchase them all but then sell each title separately, but Court did not foresee developer interest given the remoteness of the island.

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“It may be a long-term investor in New Zealand waterfront property, possibly, but I don’t see it being a developer buying it to flick,” she said.

And while the rules for foreign buyers have been relaxed for those with the Active Investor Plus visa, Court said the property was on an island and thus designated sensitive land.

“If there were an offshore buyer, they would have to come in under the OIC, the normal way, which takes time. It’s not impossible, but it would be more difficult.”

It was hard to give a price indication: “It’s such an incomparable property, and there’s been no recent sales anywhere to compare it to, which is why we are tendering it.” Tenders close on May 12.

The site would feature large in a lot of people’s histories and memories, she said. “There are regattas out there. Even though it’s private land, people stop on there and have a wander round, and there are walking tracks from other parts of Kawau across it.”

Court said the yacht squadron bought the property from BP, the oil company, in 1989. The bay where Lidgard House is situated is called Smelting House Bay, dating back to the 1840s when the island was mined for copper.

The historic Lidgard House beside the jetty has been recently renovated and is let as a holiday house to squadron members. Photo / NZME

In the past, the property has been rented out to squadron members and non-members, starting at $600 a night.

David Blakey, commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, told OneRoof that the squadron bought the land 37 years ago to preserve it for the boating community. The sale has been tough news for some members.

“There is a deep emotional connection to the property, and an understanding of its uniqueness in the Hauraki Gulf. So it has been a lot of work taking members on this journey, why we’re doing this.

“We hope, depending on who purchases it, that it can be preserved for the use of boaties in Auckland into the future,” he said, adding that he did not know what the property would sell for.

“We will be as interested as anybody on what the market thinks it will be worth. We’re hoping it’s actually worth a lot to the right people.”

The squadron, which faced an over $1.4 million trading loss in 2023 after the America’s Cup, will use the money from the sale for RNZYS Foundation Fund to support yachting, as well as invest in its premises at Westhaven.

Next door to Lidgard house, the Kawau Boat Club bought their clubhouse from the squadron in 2024 for $635,000.

That has a covenant that it remains in use as a yacht club, but Blakey said the land at Smelting House Bay could go into private hands.