A belle at the beach

By WAYNE THOMPSON

A 10-bedroom home estimated to cost at least $6 million will soon be perched on a clifftop overlooking a secluded beach and with views out to Little Barrier Island.

The house is being built near Omaha, 16km north of Warkworth, for an Auckland business couple.

It is one of a dozen homes with a construction value of more than $2 million going up at New Zealand's beach and lake resorts and in choice parts of Auckland and North Shore Cities.

Real estate agents say beachfront property prices have rocketed and the top end of the residential property market in Auckland is also thriving.

Real Estate Institute figures show the number of $1 million-plus homes being sold in Auckland has almost doubled in the past 18 months.

At the same time, the number of properties selling for more than $700,000 has increased more than 70 per cent.

The 2600 sq m building is expected to be completed in a year.

Its privacy is ensured by a buffer of 27ha of prime coastal land, which will be landscaped with a 25m pool, tennis courts, gardens, a vineyard and groves of thousands of native trees.

Coastal blocks in the Omaha area are valued at $75,000 to $120,000 a hectare and small beach sections up to $800,000.

Architect Ron Seeto said the owners of the property were private people and it would be their "holiday retreat".

He said the home would have the character of a tropical, Southeast Asian resort but adapted to New Zealand conditions.

The building would be in three pavilions stepped down the hillside towards the beach.

Covered walkways would link rooms.

Mr Seeto said it was an exciting project and building a house of that size was a rare opportunity internationally.

British architects competed for the project with New Zealanders.

Bayleys Research manager Gerald Rundle said the number of $1 million homes sold in Auckland had jumped from 55 in the October 2000 quarter to 98 in the quarter to January.

In the past 18 months the number of homes sold for more than $700,000 increased from 135 to 241 a quarter.

In Parnell, Leuschke Group Architects has designed a family home for an unnamed New Zealand banker returning after a successful career overseas.

It will cost $4 million alone to build the 900 sq m house, which is in the formal style of east coast America.

The house will be built in St Stephens Ave on a $3 million site made up of two former house sites and an empty section.

The chairman of the Auckland branch of the Institute of Architects, Chris Hume, said the bumper crop of expensive homes resulted from a number of factors.

The America's Cup had generated a lot of interest in living here.

New Zealand was seen as a safe and attractive place for investing and living by those who could afford homes anywhere in the world.

Paying $2 million for land and building a house of the same value was "chicken feed" to foreigners when they considered how much their dollar could buy in New Zealand.

Mr Hume said the number of expensive homes being designed by New Zealanders was a result of their worldwide reputations.

New Zealand was at the forefront of world design for its environmental sensitivity, he said, and several homes here would fit comfortably in any society.