Eight luxury townhouses planned for Great North Rd in Whanganui

An artist's impression of the townhouses. Image / Supplied

Plans are afoot to build eight new townhouses on Great North Rd in St John's Hill, and the developer says there's strong interest in the prospective properties.

The development is being led by Devon Homes along with real estate company Bayleys.

Devon Homes director Bernard Reuters described the project as being eight "high-specced" luxury townhouses.

"They will have views towards the lake and the Winter Gardens park, as well as fantastic views out to sea."

The property, at 115 Great North Rd, previously had a house on it which has been demolished, and some trees have been removed to open up sea views looking to the south.

Reuters said there had been strong demand for the types of houses they were building at the Great North Rd site.

The site at 115 Great North Rd previously had a house on it. Photo / Bevan Conley

They were low maintenance, "lock up and leave" type houses with security gates into the complex.

"There's a shortage of this type of product and, going by the high level of enquiry for this, it's proved we were right with our concepts."

Some of the townhouses would be three storeys, while others would be two. The three-storey properties would have their own lifts inside, Reuters said.

In terms of size, they will vary from 180 to 250 square metres.

Reuters said because of the strong interest in the project, he anticipated building would likely begin very soon after building consents were approved.

He expected those to be done in three to four months.

"We've already started demolishing and shaping the site, but we're waiting for consultants to complete their design so we can put plans in," he said.

Despite well-documented troubles in the building industry around supplies and inflation, Reuters said his company's forward planning and good relationships with merchants meant he was confident in an 18-month construction time period.

"We don't see with our forward planning ... we don't see delays like other people would."

Bayleys was taking registrations of interest.

For now, Reuters was unable to give a price range for the townhouses because final plans were not yet completed.

But he did say the price they would eventually agree on with buyers would be one they would hold, and was not likely to go up because of inflation.

"We need to give an upfront price at the beginning and give comfort to the client and be prepared to ... hold the price.

"We do a lot of pre-negotiation at the start of the project. We buy product and store it to avoid price increases."

Across the road from the Devon Homes project, on the former Shangri-La restaurant site on the corner of Parkes Ave and Great North Rd, is an apartment project being developed by Geoff Mackintosh.