First homes almost ready at giant Springpark estate

Some buyers have voiced frustration at the slow pace of progress at Springpark's site.

Framing is up for the first 20 houses at one of Auckland's biggest new housing estates.

Tony Gapes of Redwood Group said work at the 10.5ha Springpark site in Mt Wellington had initially been slow but that had changed.

"Progress is now going well. We have had a lot of delays in getting civil works consents out of Auckland Council but we are hoping to get the last of these today. We now have around 20 houses framed up and being closed in with delivery of the first of these in August/September and then more houses delivered every month until early next year.

"The delays have been long for some of our early purchasers but we are pushing as hard as we can to get these houses completed now that we have the consents that we need and we do not anticipate any further delays," Gapes said.

In 2013, he revealed plans for 420 terraced homes with three to four-storey apartments.

Objectors to his huge scheme raised issues around rats which had to be poisoned on the ex-nursery site before earthworks began, traffic, overcrowding, pollution, noise, pohutukawa removal, monotonous buildings, contamination, dust, grime and smells.

Delays have frustrated some buyers like Edwin Uy who was yesterday concerned by lack of progress.

"We opted to buy a property in Springpark. We only put in our deposit this year for Stage 2 but are now concerned about the lack of progress on the property. We've contacted the designated project co-ordinator for Springpark and while she assures us this is 'normal' for a large scale development like this, it is still good to see houses sprouting up from the ground at some stage either this year or early next year," Uy said.