Coastal investment keenly sought

By Bob Dey

Coastal land is becoming an increasingly valuable investment as urban sprawl swallows up areas once regarded as distant holiday spots and extension of the motorway north out of Auckland promises to make the Far North a comparatively easy drive.

Some of the prime spots around the coasts of Northland and the Coromandel have been bought by entrepreneurs aware that the potential for capital gain there may be far greater than on many city buildings.

An hour or so each way from Auckland, Orere Pt and Omaha face increasing development, the southern point from a mixture of rural and moderately dense subdivision, the northern beach from a continuation of development into a large village.

Bayleys Real Estate has specialised for several years in promoting many of these prized holiday spots for sale, and has just secured wealthy evangelist Bill Subritzky's 1160ha Mataka Station, to be offered through a tender closing on October 15.

Subritzky had an Auckland legal practice for 30 years and founded Universal Homes in 1957 when he learned from holiday-home neighbour Ron Neil how much money could be made from housing.

He acquired Mataka, which covers the end of the Purerua Peninsula on the northern side of the Bay of Islands, in 1975, when taxes were high and Government policy made the term "Queen Street farmer" a reality.

Farming is not so popular now as lifestyle blocks spread north through Rodney and into the Kaipara, and land sales based on traditional farming are at prices well below those based on leisure-related uses.

Recent sales in Northland based on the traditional farmland measure, the stock unit, have been at $300 to $400 a stock unit.

For Mataka's Perendale and award-winning merino sheep and 720 cattle, making a total of about 7000 stock units, that would produce a price of only $2.8 million.

But the station has 12km of coastline and its five beaches include the 400m Wiwiki surf beach, facing north-east into the Pacific Ocean.

One of the station's 18 titles covers about one-third of the property, with the smallest just over half a hectare, making it a rural subdivision proposition.

Sales based on non-traditional farming uses have been at widely varying prices. A recent Northland island sale was at about $50,000 a hectare, a large Coromandel property sold last year for about $16,400 a hectare and small Northland retreats have fetched upward of $400,000 a hectare.

In a livelier investment market than a year ago, the large-lot price is likely to be above that Coromandel figure, which would put the price on Mataka over $20 million.