Houses push out city campsites

Reporter·NZ Herald·

10 Jul, 2015 05:00 PM5 mins to read

Amy Wildash with her partner, David Pick, and their daughter Katharine. Photo / Chris Loufte

Auckland region’s holiday and caravan parks are steadily being sold to make way for subdivisions.

Motor camps for family holidays are getting harder to find close to Auckland as the city's house-price bubble consumes more land for housing.

Three of the nine camping grounds in the city's main urban area are closing. Two are making way for new houses and Meadowcourt Caravan Park is going so AUT University's Manukau campus can expand.

One of the remaining six, Takapuna Beach Holiday Park, is also threatened with closure because of a proposed new marine sports centre.

And in the Coromandel, the Hahei Holiday Resort is up for sale in a deal that could see the 6.8ha property subdivided for housing. Agent John Bedford of CBRE said offers closed last month and he hoped to complete a deal by August 15.

The Whangamata Motor Camp, on 1.66ha, is also up for sale.

Offers for Coromandel's Hahei Holiday Resort closed last month.

Motor Caravan Association Auckland chairman Dave Murray and his wife, Ellie, have stayed at the Manukau Holiday Park since they sold their Papatoetoe house last September.

"We are definitely losing the luxury that Kiwis had in the early 60s, if not earlier, to just be able to have a good old camping holiday," he said.

"People want housing and they are just forcing more and more people away from what they enjoy doing."

Property economist Rodney Dickens said the loss was largely confined to Auckland because elsewhere it was still cheaper to buy an existing house than to buy land and build a new one.

Eric Guo of Herun Investments said his Avondale Motor Park would close in September to make room for 30 single-storey three- and four-bedroom homes. He paid about $8 million for the site and adjoining houses at 44 and 48 Bollard Ave.

The Manukau Holiday Park has been sold to Lexus Residential, which will build 100 two-bedroom townhouses in the next three years on a site which includes vacant land next door.

Lexus director Arthur Adams said building would start on the vacant land in October, allowing the holiday park to stay open until September next year.

The townhouses would sell for about $500,000 each, valuing the development at about $50 million. The park's rating valuation last July was $1.55 million.

Park manager Mark Isbister, whose parents started the facility in 1986, said it was hot property.

"We had several developers approach us; we had a bidding war between three developers at one stage," he said.

Holiday Parks Association chief executive Fergus Brown said he was concerned about the closure of the Manukau park because it was the closest to Auckland Airport.

"If visitors do travel in campervans or mobile homes they are the highest spenders because they stay in New Zealand the longest and want to experience a wide range of New Zealand experiences," Mr Brown said.

He has talked with Auckland Mayor Len Brown and the city's economic development agency Ateed about possible sites in Auckland.

Mr Isbister said the Auckland Airport company opened a site for campervans near the airport in 2011 but did not provide any staff and few people used it, so it had now leased the site to Jucy Car Rentals.

Ateed tourism manager Jason Hill said his agency was exploring "other opportunities that might exist in the city to fill the gaps".

He said there were holiday parks in short driving distance from Auckland city and the airport and Ateed did not believe business would be lost from the closures.

Five-time visitors say cabins convenient and economical

Amy Wildash with her partner, David Pick, and their daughter Katharine. Photo / Chris Loufte

The Manukau Holiday Park has been the perfect base for one Whakatane family to give their daughter a taste of what Auckland can offer.

Amy Wildash and David Pick, both teachers, have stayed there five times either with school trips or with their daughter Katharine, aged 3.

"We've come up for two nights to give the littlie a taste of Auckland Zoo and the museum," Mr Pick said.

"We stay here because we know it, and it's convenient, the units are really warm and it fits our budget. We don't have a huge amount of money to lash out on accommodation when we are doing other things."

Caravans and cabins at the park are grouped around a central lawn with trees and a play area for children.

"It's a good place to bring the school kids because it's not like it's in the middle of town," said Ms Wildash.

Swiss family Stefan and Kathrin Ming with children Sarah, 4, and Liam, 3 next week, have had six years in Invercargill, then spent the past five weeks driving through New Zealand in a campervan before flying back to Switzerland today. They had their last two nights at the Manukau camp.

"It's the closest one to the airport, we found out. If I hear it's closing, that is quite sad, actually," Mr Ming said.