By COLIN TAYLOR
An 18ha chunk of farm land adjoining the established Beachlands residential area on the Pohutukawa Coast has been put on the market.
Owned by Karaka Farms, the land is in six titles and has views across Formosa Golf Course, Pine Harbour Marina, Hauraki Gulf and Eastern Beach, with the Sky Tower in the distance.
Colliers International commercial sales director Peter Herdson says future rezoning of the prime coastal land would make it suitable for a retirement village, development as a residential subdivision or for land banking.
Beachlands' population is expected to swell to more than 3000 when two residential subdivisions currently under way are finished.
A new town centre has been mooted, as well as a two-lane highway from Whitford to Maraetai.
Herdson says the village, which was originally settled as a seaside resort, is fast becoming a commuter centre for people working in Manukau city and at Auckland Airport.
Beachlands already has about 1000 houses, ranging from older-style 1920s baches to newer homes on the beachfront and cliff-top.
Karaka Farms has been approached by potential buyers wanting individual titles, but the 18ha property is being sold in one lot.
Herdson says he is marketing the land by international tender.
"It may be the last block of this size on the east coast of Manukau that has gulf and sea views and is available for future development," he says.
Previously used as a chicken farm, the land has recently been used by a farmer for cattle and horse grazing.
There are a number of farm buildings on the land, including stables, outbuildings and two long-run sheds with grain hoppers, once used for intensive chicken-rearing but now used for storage.
The site has its own water bore and is connected to the township's sewerage system.
The city's district plan permits applications for "comprehensive countryside living development".
But growth pressures on Beachlands have prompted the council to begin a study examining whether the village should be allowed to expand further.
Cheryl Cleary, the council's project manager for the Beachlands study, says it will consider the opinions of the community, the demand for residential and business land, the Auckland Regional Council's current policies that expansion of rural and coastal villages be restricted, infrastructure requirements (such as wastewater and water supply capacity), retention of the open rural and coastal landscape, and integration between Whitford and the Beachlands settlement.
A report is expected late next year.
Cleary says the council is giving no guarantees that the study will identify that expansion of Beachlands is appropriate, given the likelihood of a diversity of opinions within the existing community.
If expansion is supported, the council will begin extensive public consultation on any rezoning, and this could take a further one to two years.
Herdson says pundits expect the process to produce more flexible development options.
The local Pohutukawa Coast Times reports that a proposal for a new 13ha town centre on the southern corner of the Whitford Maraetai Rd and Beachlands Rd intersection was recently presented to the Clevedon Community Board.
The plan for the Pohutukawa Coast Town Centre was put to the board by Humphrey Beeson, a Howick resident and director of an East Tamaki property consultancy company.
Beeson was quoted as saying a town centre would act to contain further urban development by providing a separation between the urban and rural areas.
He envisaged the town centre as including a library, arts centre, a range of retail and speciality food stores, a supermarket and retirement village along with extensive landscaping and a central park.
Land values have risen in Beachlands, helped by its coastal location, larger sections, three beaches within walking distance and the two new subdivisions.
When a 350-lot waterfront subdivision was announced for Spinnaker Bay next to Beachlands, lots in the first stage averaging 1000 sq m or more sold for $180,000 to $250,000.
Herdson says large, unencumbered development sites on the coast are rare within 35 minutes' drive of downtown Auckland and within 25 minutes of Manukau and the airport.
Beachlands also has eight ferry crossings a day to the CBD from the Pine Harbour Marina.
Large blocks of land for sale anywhere between Warkworth and Clevedon do not pop up often and they create enormous interest among developers and investors, he says.
This 18ha is gently sloping and 70 per cent of any development would have sea views.
"The last big block put on the market was a 187ha private peninsula at Kawakawa Bay bought by the Auckland Regional Council for $15 million."
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