WEEKEND INSIGHT: Residents join Waihi Beach carve up

The Bay's coastal towns are booming, with some property values nearly tripling in just three years. In today's Weekend Insight, Graham Skellern and Ruth Woodward focus on two such communities - Waihi Beach and Pukehina.
Back in the 1960s Mike Fowler biked along metal streets delivering newspapers to all 200 houses in Waihi Beach.
The streets are now sealed, the number of homes has increased tenfold - and Mr Fowler, a successful real estate agent, is selling $1 million beachfront properties to holidaymakers from Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga.
After sewerage went in four years ago, the developers and property investors moved in and the small coastal community - for a long time overshadowed by Mount Maunganui and Whangamata - came of age.
Mr Fowler, who owns Professionals Fowler Real Estate, last month auctioned off a 15-year-old, two level beachfront house in The Loop for $1.475 million, the highest price seen in Waihi Beach. There were six bidders and since then the property has been re-sold for $1.65 million.
All the beachfront land, split into 800 sq m sections, is valued at $1.1 million, and Mr Fowler has so far witnessed five sales of more than $1 million.
A block or two away from the beach, many residents are busy subdividing their sections.
They might get close to $200,000 for a rear section and a little more than that for the front - prices that would have been more like $60,000 to $65,000 four years ago.
"I never thought prices would rise that quickly," said Mr Fowler, who has lived in Waihi Beach for 50 years.
"The Mount and Whangamata have been pumping away on each side and Waihi Beach has been the quiet little family place in between.
"It doesn't have a hoon problem, it's not noisy and crowded, and people have realised it's the place to be," he said.
But Waihi Beach is not the only Bay coastal community to boom. As reported in the Bay of Plenty Times this week, the dream of owning a seaside bach has become a $1 million proposition in many areas - even outside super-expensive Mount Maunganui and Papamoa.
Prices have doubled - even tripled in some places - in three years.
This boom was welcomed by new Waihi Beach resident and Wilson Rd Dairy owner Bill Bartley.
Despite, relocating from Auckland eight months ago, he had already ascertained developments in the town warranted his store's expansion.
"To be honest I don't have any specific figures to show there are more people coming in - but I believe it's busy enough for us to expand."
He said the dairy, would soon occupy the building formerly engaged by the Four Square.
Meanwhile, local business woman and resident of four years, Kathleen Young said while she was not against development, she believed developers needed to consult the community on projects.
"I'd like to see developments done in a more structured way and after more public consultation.
"It needs to be done in the right way so subdivisons stop popping up all over the place."
A development boom is well underway at Waihi Beach.
Developers are pushing ahead with five subdivisions, worth about $60 million, on the fringe of the established residential area.
Altogether 409 new sections are in the pipeline.
The first stage of 46 sections in the Maranui Estate on the hill behind the RSA sold out in three weeks last year and the new home owners will have commanding views of the town and the sea.
Another stage of 46 sections is selling for prices between $240,000 and $305,000.
The nine-hole Pines golf course on Wilson Rd was closed last November to make way for the 92 section Ocean Breeze subdivision.
A summer of earthworks has also been completed in the 52 section Mountain View subdivision on the main road in from Katikati near the air strip.
Mountain View developer Des Gerrand is also looking at building a three-level apartment complex on 2ha of his 6.5 ha site.
He is aiming to fit in 50 to 60 two and three-bedroom apartments, selling for up to $495,000, and he will be seeking permission to develop a garden and barbecue area on the fourth level to take in the sea view.
If he doesn't proceed with the apartments, he will produce another 20 sections.
At the northern end of the beach, Tauranga property developer and investor Tom Roper is finishing off the community's first luxury townhouses.
When the three 286 sq m four-bedroom townhouses, on separate titles, are completed later this month they will be selling for more than $1.4 million each.
On the other side of Beach Rd, Mr Gerrand has bought the commercial site with the abandoned picture theatre and wholesale liquor outlet. He will probably remove the buildings next summer and start building four three-level luxury apartments.
In Seaforth Rd, a strip of land opposite the reserve has been rezoned for high density housing up to 9m.
This area is still untouched and the cows still graze in the reserve.
Mr Roper, who has had a holiday home in Waihi Beach for 26 years, has a lot of confidence in the town's future.
"It's been a well kept secret but it's a sleepy hollow that is awakening," he said
"Like it or not, Waihi Beach is going to grow into a bigger place."
Mr Roper said the million-dollar sales have galvanised residents. They were sprucing up their homes and subdividing their sections.
The sales had given everyone a boost and they saw a bright future.
"It won't develop into the intensity of the Mount - there's no industry here - but it must be an exciting place for the Western Bay council.
"Waihi Beach is a cash cow sitting there waiting to happen."
Ross Goudie, Western Bay's Waihi Beach ward councillor, said the community needed 1000 new sections to break even on the $18 million sewerage system.
The sections already in the pipeline provide $8 million worth of development impact fees - "so we are halfway there."
People were just waiting for the sewerage to go in.
"When a group of councillors visited the area they were gobsmacked by the amount of earthworks going on.
"All I hope is that we can develop a community plan to set a standard for the subdivisions and to create a special coastal theme," said Mr Goudie.
Waihi Beach has 3000 permanent residents and half the homes are owned by people living elsewhere - including Sir Edmund Hillary, Governor-General Dame Syvia Cartwright, Telecom boss Teresa Gattung and former All Blacks John Kirwan, Warren Gatland and Carl Hoeft.
The place swells to 9000 people over a long weekend and up to 20,000 over the Christmas/New Year holidays - with plenty of tents springing up on the lawns.
The town is predicted to grow to 5200 permanent residents by 2021 and nearly 9000 by 2051.
"We just have to work at making sure the place retains its family appeal and beach informality," said Mr Goudie. additional reporting Yvette Wakelin