A PREDICTED slowdown in the Northland property market isn't affecting high-end properties, according to a Tutukaka agent who sold a bare coastal section for $2.2 million. The 2090sq m rectangle of "absolute waterfront" at Whangarei coastal gem Moureeses Bay sold at auction for $2.2 million to a Wellington buyer. The property wassold through Allens Goode Leith Realty of Whangarei. Marketers Chris Windust and Peter Vink of the company's Tutukaka office say they received inquiries from expatriates in Australia, the United States and Asia and sent out 38 auction packs on request. Of three serious bidders on the day, only two stayed the distance. Mr Vink believed both might have taken bidding to higher levels than they intended but had "made up their minds that that was what they wanted". The property faces north-east and is bounded by road and esplanade reserve. The sale price was not a record for Whangarei coastal land - six months ago a similar property on a peninsula to the south of Moureeses Bay sold for $2.7m. Mr Vink said he believed the level of interest, the successful bid and the intensity of bidding showed the current softening of the market was affecting middle and lower range buyers rather than top-end. "There is no decline of interest in or willingness to pay for top-end properties, especially prime waterfront land. And land like the Moureeses Bay lot is very, very hard to come by." The same team is marketing a property that they say has already attracted "huge interest" - a 24ha block with white sand beach between Sandy Bay and Whananaki. Access is on the paper road that is part of the Capitaine Bougainville walkway. The property will go to auction at Allens' city office on March 20. Co-incidentally the other property being auctioned at the same time as the Moureeses Bay land - a 99ha block of land in two titles at Kokopu - also sold for $2.2m. The buyers were the owners of two adjoining farms and will each add one of the blocks to their own land. Marketer Pip Howard described the price - which breaks down to about $25,000 a hectare - as "realistic".
