Westies unite to sell 42.26ha farmland block worth $150 million-plus for housing

Westgate Estate, a 42.2ha greenfields site, being marketed by consultants JLL.

When the city arrived in the countryside, the owners decided to sell.

Ten owners of a huge west Auckland site have grouped together to sell their $150 million-plus farmland for a vast new housing estate.

John Binning of real estate agency JLL said owners of the 42.26ha of land on Fred Taylor Dr had worked together for four years and spent "an awful lot of money" on the deal.

Around 1500 residences could be built on the site, he said. The titles have not been amalgamated but the site is thought to have a current market valuation in excess of $150 million.

Fellow agent David Mayhew said it had taken some time.

"The owners are families who have a long history in West Auckland. Many of them have lived in the area all their lives.

"They have joined together to sell their land so that they can retire and provide for their own children. They see the dire need for housing in Auckland and they believe that now is the right time to develop more housing in the north west," Mayhew said.

Binning said the owners had put a lot of work into the deal.

"They have spent four years and an awful lot of money doing the hard work to get to this point. Everything has been done properly, in terms of making sure the right zoning, consents and wastewater is in place and that the traffic planning research has been done," Binning said.

Mayhew said that under Auckland's Proposed Unitary Plan, the area had zoning to allow mixed housing, terraced housing and apartments to be built.

"The site is ready to go. The owners were working towards getting a Special Housing Area, but the Unitary Plan has made the zoning changes happen for them. A developer could put higher density dwellings at the Fred Taylor Drive end of the site at some point and they would be within walking distance of the supermarket," Mayhew said.

Watch: Barbour tells what's about to be built at Westgate

Henry Norcross, a west Auckland businessman is representing the 10 owners.

The site is near the new $1 billion Westgate with a big new shopping centre, including bulk retail outlets, a Pak'nSave and the NorthWest shopping centre which opened last October.

About 40,000 new residences are planned to be built in the wider area.

Campbell Barbour, NZ Retail Property Group chief executive, said the rapidly expanding area would need a community hub and Westgate was planned to be that.

A new dining precinct and commercial premises were officially opened at NorthWest this month.