Ensuring your retreat has buyer appeal

It might be tempting to build your coast or country house with individual flair, but that could make it a hard sell in the future.

Most of us crave a special place to call our own. Some are content with a room and a view, but increasingly home owners considering life outside the city are thinking in terms of houses, estates or secret retreats.

New Zealand's still comparatively undeveloped hinterland offers many possibilities - deep in the bush, high up in mountain passes or on unspoiled coastlines or islands.

"It's hard to write a script about what appeals," says Hamish Macdonald of Bayleys, "but probably the main factor is what the location offers in a recreational and lifestyle sense." And in his opinion, should it ever become necessary to sell, it will be location more than anything that will appeal to a buyer.

But building, let alone buying or selling, these magical places offer challenges of their own. For a start, planning and compliance issues might be complicated and long-winded, especially in areas where the environment is considered fragile. If access is difficult or the site remote, all building costs will have a premium - whether it is merely transporting materials, or the builders' gang wanting accommodation while on the job. Providing utilities could be expensive and you may have to get up to speed on running a household on solar power and protecting equipment from possums and other pests when you're not there.

None of these things are insurmountable, and in most rural situations may not even apply, but it's worth checking them out before committing to your dream site.

Another thing to consider is what will happen if it is ever necessary to sell your dream? Will there be buyers falling over themselves to buy your little piece of heaven, or have you priced it out of many prospective buyers' pockets?

Is the fact that it is more than that magical two hours away from a major city and up a winding gravel road a real turn-off for a large number of buyers? Have you overcapitalised by building a $3 million mansion near the water but not waterside?

This last example is particularly important if the market slows, as Blue Hancock from Quotable Value points out.

"In a hot market waterfront location won't matter, but it definitely does when things soften. The bottom line is not to overcapitalise and to make the house appeal as broadly as possible in a practical sense."

Therefore, putting in an all-weather drive and lots of water storage, as well as three bedrooms, comfortable bathrooms and flexible living spaces will be money well spent even if you do not require them. Bryan Thomson, New Zealand chief executive of Harcourts, puts it in a nutshell.

"It pays to remember that if you own a property that is very remote, very expensive or very unusual, then the buyer pool will be small at any one time and it can, although not always, take a long time to sell these properties no matter how wonderful they are. People usually buy with their emotions and your desire to sell has to coincide with someone with the same desires and financial expectation as yourself."

He says that because locating that special buyer is important, a broad marketing campaign is essential, meaning advertising in the mainstream press and on the internet.

If this is a home that you are positive will be in your family for generations, then go for it. Build what you like, where you like.

If you're not so sure, construct your little piece of paradise with broad appeal in mind and you won't go far wrong if you one day have to sell.