Coastal farm Tupou, north of Taupo Bay, is up for sale featuring 1439 hectares including five beaches. / Supplied by Legacy Partners
Forget buying a beach. How about five beaches?
A rare and significant coastal farm with more coastline than the famed Kauri Cliffs is on the market in Northland — but wannabe landowners will need deep pockets.
The 1439ha property is being marketed by sole agent Michael Pleciak, of Legacy Partners, who described it as a "spectacular and unspoilt paradise, with absolute privacy".
Known as Tupou, the east coast property is north of Taupo Bay, itself 130km north of Whangarei.
With 13km of pristine coastline and five white-sand beaches, the property is the third largest coastal farm in private ownership on the east coast north of Whangarei, Pleciak said.
It has more than double the coastline of Kauri Cliffs, although the US-owned site of the luxury lodge and golf course is much larger in overall size, he said.
Ownership of Tupou, a working farm, is spread across 16 titles, with a combined 2016 capital value of $16.9m.
Pleciak didn't want to say what the farm might sell for, other than it would be "in excess of" the capital value.
The 1439ha property is expected to sell for more than $17 million. Photo / Supplied.
"It's very rare that there's something like this out there. The scale of it - the number of beaches and the coastline."
The property is owned by the families of the late Ray, Noel and Peter Josephson, the main shareholders in the Keans for Jeans New Zealand clothing business.
The business was famous for its 5m neon sign, outside Kean's Queen St store, of a cowboy in blue jeans and red bandana twirling a lasso.
Tupou was covered in scrub when the Josephson brothers bought it in the early 1960s and embarked on one of the largest development programmes in Northland at the time, Pleciak said.
A farm manager and shepherd now live on the property and run the sheep and beef farm, which has an effective pasture area of 1150ha.
The property also includes a home, five baches and a beachside tennis court.
Family spokesman Rob Josephson said the family were selling "as the extended family is planning for the future".
Pleciak also said that as a large, productive farm, Tupou could potentially satisfy economic criteria mentioned in a December ministerial directive letter about overseas investments in rural land.
There has been a crackdown on new foreign ownership of property in New Zealand since the Labour-NZ First coalition came into power late last year.
Overseas Investment Office deputy chief executive of policy and overseas investment Lisa Barrett said investors wanting to buy or lease sensitive land must show their investment will create benefits for New Zealand.
Where the sensitive land includes non-urban land over 5ha, they must also show the benefit will be, or is likely to be, substantial and identifiable.
It was up to ministers or the office to determine the relevance and relative importance to be given to each factor, such as jobs or increased exports, she said.
