Overseas buyers eye up tiny boatshed in Whangārei up for sale

The 24sq m boatshed for sale at 2/50 Riverside Drive, in Riverside, Whangārei.

A Whangārei real estate agent is expecting a crowded auction room when Boatshed 6149 goes under the hammer next month.

EVES agent Karl Leathley says interest in the 24sqm shed at 2/50 Riverside Drive, on the Hatea River, has been off the scale.

He’s even had people contact him from Australia.

“I’ve had more inquiries for this property than I have had on just about anything I’ve listed in the last 12 months,” Leathley told OneRoof. “That gives an idea of its appeal.”

The Hatea River boatsheds, which are just outside the town basin, are like gold dust and attract considerable attention when they come up for sale.

And while boatsheds in New Zealand can fetch millions of dollars - one used in the hit TV show David Lomas Investigates sold for $2.05 million earlier this year - Leathley says the price point for this one is a lot lower.

The boatshed currently houses a replica of a 19th century Banks Dory cod boat, which Leathley says, is included in the sale.

Some potential buyers have floated upgrading the boatshed into a studio, but others have indicated they just want to use it for storage.

“I had a guy contact me from Auckland who was talking about storing his flounder fishing boat there,” Leathley says.

“You could do as much or as little as you’d like with it because it’s very bare bones.”

Another boatshed on the strip, at 6155/50 Riverside Drive, has an asking price of $695,000.

Boatshed 6149 is built with native timber and a classic corrugated iron roof. The existing resource consent for the structure includes a mooring area of about 6m x 3m, together with a mooring block and associated mooring piles. There is consent for overnighting in berthed vessels for no more than two consecutive nights in any seven-day period.

The consent does not allow for any discharge of oil, sewage, rubbish or other “noxious liquid substances” into the river.

The property doesn’t include a toilet or kitchen but there are water and sewage connections on the boundary that could be hooked up if there was a change in resource consent, says Leathley.

“If you had an idea in mind, you’d apply for a resource consent to the regional council and go from there.”

Some of the larger boatsheds in the row have bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms.

The existing resource consent expires in October 2023, but that will be renewed up to at least August 2058 prior to settlement.

A similar-sized boatshed at 50 Riverside Drive sold in 2020 for $61,000, although that was in poor condition, says Leathley. It does give an indication of what people are willing to pay.

“That one needed its resource consent renewing. But more importantly, it needed to be torn down and rebuilt, so that the new owner would have spent a fairly significant chunk of money on doing that in the same footprint.”

Unlike homes, the buyer does not receive a title.

“Whether a house or a commercial building or a piece of land, there is a title that passes between different parties and that’s your instrument of ownership. With this one, the rights and interests in the resource consent are the method of ownership and will pass from the current owner to the [buyer].”

Boatshed 6149 is not the only boatshed for sale at 50 Riverside Drive. Barfoot & Thompson is selling a larger boatshed with kitchen, lounge area, upstairs bedroom, main bathroom and mooring, at 6155/50 Riverside Drive for $695,000.