Shane Brealey on NZ Living’s new $90 million three-level Northcote development. Video / NZ Herald
Apartments for $500,000 to $600,000 in NZ Living’s new $90 million three-level Northcote development were so popular they sold in minutes.
“We sold 66 apartments in three minutes,” explains NZ Living founder Shane Brealey of the process conducted back in 2021.
“We said ‘email us from 9am, send through theconfirmation of bank funding first and any preferred choice of apartment’. By 9.03am, they were all gone. By 9.05am, 260 qualified buyers were waiting to buy.”
That was a huge vote of confidence in the project developed on ex-state housing land near the area’s town centre, opposite Greenslade Reserve which fronts Lake Rd.
The answer is around half the 129 units in nine buildings on a 1ha block surrounded by four streets which Brealey calls Greenslade after one of the streets.
Strong te ao Māori artwork in the brick cladding on the new apartment buildings. Photo / Alex Burton
NZ Living took just 20 months to build the scheme, manufacturing its own in-situ poured concrete panels in a method it has pioneered elsewhere successfully and which Brealey says takes a fraction of the time and cost of tilt-a-slabs being made offsite and trucked to construction projects.
Each apartment came with fitted blinds, Fisher & Paykel ovens, fridge/freezers and washing machines with ducted dryers, ground-level bike storage, vehicle charging stations, 123 on-site car parks, all a reserve-width walk away from Northcote’s town centre with frequent bus connections.
“We only build where there’s good public transport,” Brealey says. “If people can’t get the bus or train from home, there’s no point.”
Of the 129 units, 56 were developed under the Government’s KiwiBuild programme, the Brealeys kept 42 and 31 were sold on free market terms.
The company paid state housing owner Kāinga Ora $14 million for a 1ha entire street block across from the Northcote shops in one of the purchases whereby private developers are buying up to 60 per cent of large-scale lots to fund KO’s urban regeneration programme.
Apartments with strong indigenous designs on claddings. Photo / Alex Burton
From Northcote to Tāmaki, Oranga to Hobsonville Point, Mt Roskill to Māngere and throughout Northcote’s town centre, large blocks of state land are being sold bit by bit in a 15- to 20-year plan.
So it’s at Northcote where Shane and Anna Brealey’s NZ Living developed privately owned units. No new state units were built on that block although directly across the road, Kāinga Ora is developing large new blocks.
The Brealeys kept 42 apartments as a build-to-rent investment. Shane Brealey is chair of the newly-established body corporate committee where fees will be around $2000-$3000 per year.
All up, around 250 to 300 people “aged 18 to 80″ will live in the nine new blocks, he estimates. The first residents arrived around November and a blessing was held this month.
Shane Brealey, of NZ Living, at their new development at 25 Greenslade Cres, Northcote, Auckland, Tamaki Makaurau. A total of 129 new apartments have recently been completed with plasterboard imported from Thailand. Photo / Alex Burton
The land originally had 13 old wooden state homes on it. Brealey’s business replaced those with the brick-clad units with double-glazed windows, beating standards by having argon gas pumped between panes to up thermal ratings.
Although the company has vastly intensified the site, it has still kept big spaces between buildings.
“Every one of these we develop is a third building, a third landscaping and a third footpath and driveways.”
The 10,000sq m or 1ha site has 10,000sq m or 1ha of buildings: a one-for-one building/land ratio.
No underground car parks or basements were developed due to costs.
The nine buildings are in the block between Greensale Cres, Ko St, Potter Ave and Matatiki St.
Every unit has a balcony and those face north, east and west. Bedrooms are mainly on the southern sides.
Plans pre-construction show the nine apartment blocks (centre) beside the under-construction Kāinga Ora project (right) on Greenslade Cres, Northcote. Photo / NZ Living
Architect Kevin Brewer, of Brewer Davidson, designed the buildings. Sculptures are by Anton Forde and visual artist and weaving expert Ngaahina Hohaia advised on art including building facade motifs, Brealey said.
As for wall linings, Brealey and business associate Sam Stubbs, of Simplicity, last year decried Winstone Wallboards’ Gib because of delays getting it. They instead imported Thai wallboard cheaper and faster.
But at Northcote, all the wall linings are Gib because Winstone was able to supply it in a more timely manner, Brealey said.
And on the timing of those apartments selling in three minutes, that occurred back in 2021 when NZ Living sought the pre-sales before construction started.
* This story has been updated to make it clear the sales took place in 2021
