High-end Auckland beach resort Omaha is being opened up for the masses, according to April 1 billboards. Photo / supplied
High-end Auckland beach resort Omaha is being opened up for the masses, according to April 1 billboards. Photo / supplied
High-end beach resort Omaha, north Auckland bach-country for the wealthy, will soon get 150 affordable homes, according to new billboards erected nearby.
The signs supposedly on the Government's extreme new form of housing pepper-potting were erected last evening - just in time for April 1.
"Kiwi build - 150 affordablehomes coming to Omaha," the signs read.
If that doesn't seem sufficiently out of place, the real clue to the April Fool's joke comes in the tagline attributing the plan to the fictitious "Ministry of Homes and Housing Development".
Kiwibuiild affordable homes to be built at Omaha, according to "Ministry of Homes and Housing Development" billboards. Photo / supplied
"We went out last night to catch all the morning traffic coming out of Omaha this morning," said chief practical joker Will Selles, a retired engineer who concocted the plan over a beer with his mates, one a producer of road signs and the other an ad man.
The signs are at the intersection of Leigh and Takatu Rds, near Omaha Flats Rd.
"There's a lot of construction work there. They are putting a nursery in. We've got the owner's permission," Selles said.
He took photos of the billboards this morning - with yellow diggers at work in the background - and noticed many drivers slowing down for a look.
A new, compact style of development is planned for high-end beach resort Omaha, according to the April 1 billboards. Photo / supplied
"Everyone's been interested in what's happening there [the development of the site]," said Selles, who has a property at Omaha and another in Auckland.
"I just thought there's so much going on about Kiwibuild and something to bolster housing stock. We thought it was quite ironical to put something like that in Omaha - the only area that doesn't need additional housing."
He said he had been told of recent multi-million-dollar property sales at Omaha.
Data from the Real Estate Institute, published in the Weekend Herald, showed the median sales price at Omaha was $1.76 million in the three months to the end of January - 31 per cent more than in the same period in 2015/16.
Selles said that before settling on the Kiwibuild prank, he and his co-conspirators had considered signs for a new prison at Omaha or sewage oxidation ponds.
