Developer Marcus Jacobson said the interest had been exceeded what he had ever seen in Auckland. Photo / Andrew Warner
Developer Marcus Jacobson said the interest had been exceeded what he had ever seen in Auckland. Photo / Andrew Warner
A Koutu development set to provide 86 new homes for the city has seen "phenomenal" interest in its first week on the market, with one agent saying he had never seen anything like it before.
Mountview Green, the development that will provide 26 properties on Koutu's Ian St androughly 60 more properties on a Frank St site across the road, went to market last Friday.
The three-bedroom and two-bathroom houses ranged from standalone, duplex and terraced options, with a portion also reserved for KiwiBuild.
Prices will sit in the $600,000 range, with a number of Kiwibuild properties to be priced at $485,000.
Standard properties will be 125sq m and will include a garage, open plan living, a master bedroom with ensuite. Photo / Supplied
Developer and director of Rotowhare Limited Marcus Jacobson told the Rotorua Daily Post "phenomenal" interest had been "exceeding what we have ever seen in Auckland".
He said since launching they had fielded hundreds of emails with close to 4000 visits to the website.
About 130 inquiries had been lodged on the website by Thursday morning - less than a week since launching, he said.
Standard properties will be 125sq m and will include a garage, open plan living, a master bedroom with ensuite. Photo / Supplied
"Volumes of traffic have been huge. We are so blown away."
He said it was a reflection of the low number of new properties coming into the Rotorua market.
Jacobson and his team were holding an information evening on the development on March 25 at the Novotel Hotel with almost 100 people already registered to go.
Contracts had already started being handed out and agents were in talks with a large number of people including first-home buyers and families, he said.
Marcus Jacobson (from left), Jayden Thompson from Tawharau Homes, Bill Ritchie from Platform Homes, and Andrea Jacobson from NZ Build Group on the Mountview Green development. Photo / Andrew Warner
Kiwibuild interest had also spiked with people jumping at the new opportunity for the city.
Professionals McDowell Real Estate principal Steve Lovegrove was the lead agent marketing the development and said he had "never before ever seen the level of inquiry on a development or single property in Rotorua" in all his years.
Professionals McDowell Real Estate principal Steve Lovegrove. Photo / File
"It is exceeding all expectations. There is really, really high demand. It's overwhelming."
They had three people solely answering phones and emails for the development and had to hire an additional person to help handle demand, he said.
He expected it may well go "even more nuts" once building began and advised buyers to "get in quickly".
Standard properties will be 125sq m and will include a garage, open plan living, a master bedroom with ensuite. Photo / Supplied
The development site was being remediated ready for piles this week by local construction company Tawharau Housing Limited, with construction set to start next week.
Standard properties will be 125sq m, while KiwiBuild sites will be 96sq m. Most homes will include a garage, open plan living, a master bedroom with ensuite and heat pumps in the living area and ducted heating to the bedrooms.
The three-bedroom Kiwibuild properties would be balloted and were set to open on March 29 for two weeks only.
KiwiBuild sites will be 96sq m with three bedrooms and a car park pad. Photo / Supplied
The project's new developer rebranded the development as Mountview Green after the failure of the previous iteration, Kawaha Point Villas under FHB Group Limited between 2017 and 2020.
Phase one at Ian St was set to be completed in the next six months while the final resource consents were signed off for the 60 properties in the second phase at Frank St.
The Frank St development was expected to be finished by next year.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said new build properties were always hot in demand as they needed no work done and were often built to the latest and highest specs.
Both first-home buyers and investors jumped at these opportunities which "created a lot of competition", he said.
Investors liked them as they "didn't have to do anything" and could rent it for a good price, he said.
New developments in places like Rotorua that had not seen a lot of new builds tended to get "all eyeballs" with new properties "flying out the door", he said.
