My home patch: New face of the south

Paul and Fran Newing at their Dannemora home. Picture / Brett Phibbs

High on the slopes of Dannemora, in the ever-narrowing gap between the Southern Motorway and Howick, the new housing estates spread east like a rash. On one boundary Paul and Fran Newing's five-bedroom home overlooks a patchwork of never-ending tiled roofs, on the other, lambs and baby pukeko play on farmland still zoned rural.

When they bought this place four years ago, the Newings had just got together. He was moving from 7.3ha near Matamata; she from the holiday feel of Bucklands Beach. They needed five bedrooms to accommodate Fran's three children from her first marriage plus a study that could double as a spare if either of Paul's came to stay.

They got a lot of house for their $555,000. Squeezed on its 849sq m section, it might have been enough to give a former farmer claustrophobia, but it had a master bedroom and bathroom fit for honeymooners. As Fran jokes "we had to sell the 17-inch TV set and buy a 30" so we could see it from the bed".

Curtains, carpets and the driveway were included in the deal. The paintwork, in fashionable browns and creams, was perfect, the stud higher than normal, the aluminium joinery solid and sound-looking. There was parking for three cars and a view across the rooftops to Rangitoto and the Sky Tower.

Possibly because it was a new subdivision, the neighbours were friendly too. "They're all professional people, a mix of European, Indian, Fijian and Asian, we have a street party every Christmas."

The children, Victoria, then 19, Matthew then 16 and Charlotte, then 14, revelled in their big bedrooms and the accessibility of the place. Botany Town Centre, touted as the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, with its three supermarkets, Warehouse, K Mart, movie theatres, bowling alley and ice skating rink, was a 10-minute downhill walk or three in the car.

As Charlotte, now 18, and with a job at Dunkin' Donuts, says: "I call up friends and say, 'let's meet up at Botany'. There's always something to do".

From Botany it was a 10-15 minute bus ride to Pakuranga College, 15 minutes to Cockle Bay and Eastern Beach, and a couple of minutes to the motorway on-ramp. As the Newings point out, this is the elite, rather than the leaky buildings part of Dannemora. Most of the leakers are in areas such as Sacramento Apartments down on the flat and confined to houses without eaves and inferior cladding. This subdivision was carried out by Parklands group which obviously met Manukau City Council demands for kerbing and channelling, underground wiring, street lighting and piped natural gas with electricity. Many roads are planted with trees and palms and walkways thread through the streets.

But now, says Paul, the big blended family home has served its purpose. "We came here for a purpose and that has passed." Certainly their lives have changed. Paul's job in biosecurity with MAF has been moved from Pukekohe to Blockhouse Bay, meaning he routinely leaves home at 6.15am to beat the traffic. Fran, 48, is working full time again as a visiting teacher/inspector with Barnardos' home-based children's care and learning service, and is finding the housework a challenge, despite the built-in central vacuuming system. Her two older children are threatening to leave home.

And her yearning for the coast, the more established feel of Howick where she grew up, and a smaller, more manageable home, has intensified.

Meanwhile this house, now completely finished, with landscaped section and in tip top order, is on the market. The price tag: $899,000. Says Paul, that's the going rate: "A house down the road, that was smaller and not elevated, sold for $810,000 a couple of weeks ago."

"I think Manukau City has a long-term plan," he continues, pointing first to Botany Downs which looks huge from here - big enough to service a bigger catchment of customers - then east to where the topsoil is being scraped off the hills in preparation for more building.

"Can you hear the bulldozers?"


Loves and hates

Loves:
* The house; proximity to shops, eastern beaches, motorway - everything

Hates:
* Finding a park at Botany over Christmas! 
 

Where east meets south

In the 1970s, Pakuranga was known as Vim Valley - the achetypal squeaky-new middle-class suburb. Then came Half Moon Bay, Highland Park, and now, on land that seemed destined to be farmland forever, the new safe suburbs of Botany Downs and Dannemora. How long, we wonder, before all the land from the motorway to Howick and Maraetai is completely used up?

With their closeness to the white sands of the city's eastern beaches, these subdivisions make sense. Botany Downs is only 10 minutes from Howick and 12 from Eastern Beach. And although it has had teething problems, mostly at the hands of the builders of cheap apartment blocks, most houses are substantial, the suburbs well planned.

The East has always been a favourite with Asians, and the new Buddhist temple and gated communities of Botany Downs can make you feel like a stranger in your city. On the other hand, people of all races seem to sit happily together here, perhaps soothed by the already leafy new streets, new schools, solid and convenient houses and the amazing Botany Town Centre.

* Who lives where?
The horsey set gravitate towards Whitford, Clevedon and Brookby; beach-lovers to Beachlands, Maraetai, Eastern Beach and Bucklands Beach.Then there are the genteel folk of Howick and Half Moon Bay backed by the slightly more exciting Pakuranga and Botany Downs.

* Second-fastest-growing: Botany Downs including Northpark, Somerville, Pt View Park, Dannemora, Cumbria Downs, Burwood.

Attracts: new immigrants from Asia, South Africa and the Middle East plus east Aucklanders searching for decent street planning and small, low-maintenance sections. $500,000 buys: 3 bedrooms with $90,000 change.

* Fastest-growing: Beachlands/Maraetai.

Attracts: people willing to trade the 40-minute (off peak) commute home for a place where the kids can still walk to school. The ferry from Pine Harbour near Beachlands to the CBD takes 25 minutes. $500,000 buys: bach with a sea view and $100,000 to do it up.

* Established beachside: Bucklands Beach including Eastern Beach.

Attracts: Families who love being near the sea who arrive and stay. $500,000 buys: 5-bedroom executive house (no view).

* Good buying: Half Moon Bay

Attracts: families lured by St Kentigern College and the other good schools of the area, leafy sections that can't be subdivided and the ferry to the CBD. $500,000 buys: basic 4-bedroom executive home.

* Genteel, historic: Howick including Mellons and Cockle Bays and Shelly Park.

Attracts: Pakeha and more recently Asians and South African migrants vying for good schools and an established, orderly, seaside retreat. $500,000 buys: 4 bedrooms, possibly sea views.

* Getting hot again: Pakuranga, including Highland Park and Edgewater.

Attracts: recent immigrants, Asian and other families. $500,000 buys: 4-bedroom executive home. Prices are considerably higher in Highland Park.

* Smart buying: Whitford, including Brookby and Clevedon.

Attracts: returning ex-pats, lifestylers lured by wide, mowed, grassy verges and tracks to trot or run along. $500,000 buys: quarter of an 18ha block with house and outbuildings.

* Additional research from Where to Live in Auckland