KEY POINTS:
The long-predicted flood of mortgagee sales has arrived, with millions of dollars worth of coastal property and housing projects being offloaded.
Entire subdivisions in prime locations such as Gulf Harbour, Okura and Cable Bay are being sold by high-profile developers, including former Rich-Lister Jamie Peters, as banks call in loans.
More than 200 properties are listed for mortgagee sale on the Trade Me website alone.
Real estate agents are predicting bargain coastal buys with "literally thousands" of sections on the market north of Auckland.
HSBC Bank has put 26 sections in Peters' Pacific Cliffs subdivision at Gulf Harbour up for mortgagee tender. They have a combined government valuation of $18 million.
Sixteen coastal sections at Cable Bay, near Mangonui in Northland, are going under the auctioneer's hammer on February 7 and a dozen land parcels in "the North Shore's most exclusive coastal lifestyle suburb", Okura, are up for mortgagee tender.
Other properties listed for mortgagee tender, auction or sale by receivers include:
Eight houses in the Merlot Lane development at Pukekohe, south of Auckland.
A nine-hectare Silverdale site occupied by the Auckland Luge company, which is in receivership.
A multi-million dollar commercial development in Takapuna, including retail, office and carparking facilities, being sold by receivers.
One real estate agent told the Herald on Sunday many developers were "between a rock and a hard place" because sales had dried up and banks had lost patience.
"A lot of finance companies will probably start to dispose of properties. A lot of banks are nervous. I think we will get a lot more mortgagees."
Jamie Peters, a relative of former Foreign Minister Winston Peters, is the driving force behind the 100ha Gulf Harbour development on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, north of Auckland.
Peters' company Starline is suing Blue Chip boss Mark Bryers over unpaid rent on investment properties he has underwritten.
Peters is reportedly selling off assets around the country to lower his debt. They include land at Grasmere Station in Canterbury, real estate in Auckland and possibly his luxury launch.
Bayleys sales agent Michael Pleciak said Pacific Cliffs had originally been subdivided into 38 plots, ranging in price from $545,000 to $1.3m. Twelve plots had been sold since they went on the market about six years ago.
The last properties to sell in the area were last June when two went for $850,000 each.
Asked if there would be bargains at the mortgagee sell-off Pleciak replied: "There are opportunities for people to buy well."
He said it was "anyone's guess" how many more mortgagee sales would hit the New Zealand coastal property market.
"It depends who are the vendors or owners and who are the lenders. Some people have more resources than others. They can survive a difficult market. There's no doubt a lot of product still to sell."
Chester Rendell is selling Cable Bay Estates by mortgagee auction for troubled finance company St Lawrence. He said the 16 sections have remained unsold for up to three years.
"Finance companies have had enough, they have to make what they can and move on to other things.
"There are a lot of sections going up here with many different finance companies involved."
Rendell said there was an oversupply of sections in Northland.
"The number of sections on the market between Mangawhai and Cable Bay is in the thousands, literally thousands. Annual sales are probably in the scores or hundreds. There are years and years and years of supply there."
He said the sections were originally priced at $180,000-$350,000.
"I would expect them to go for substantially less than that. You could buy one for your kids and landbank it. They will love you for it."
