Easy-care lifestyle draws buyers to central city townhouse project

Work is due to start on a new central city apartment block in the next month.
Developer Tony Bradley, of TBP Properties, has owned the land at 24 Malfroy Rd for about two years and is looking forward to seeing the seven townhouse-style homes take shape.
The three-bedroom homes will each have two bathrooms, a garage and a carport and are in a similar style to the six apartments built by Mr Bradley in Victoria St - all of which sold as soon as they were finished.
People travelling down Malfroy Rd in recent weeks would have seen the ground levelled and fencing go up in preparation for the development. Work was expected to start in two to three weeks when Mr Bradley completed his current project at Kawaha Point.
"I am still waiting for permits at the moment, but there is plenty of preparation work that can be done in the meantime."
He said the project should take about five months to complete and he believed there was a market for a good product at a good price, despite the residual effects of the recession. Two of the seven homes had already sold.
Mr Bradley had seen a shift away from the Kiwi dream of a quarter-acre section and mainly built houses for the low-maintenance market. "Most people want low maintenance these days. They don't want to be doing gardening and things like that."
It was a trend Harcourts real estate agent Glenn Austin had also observed.
"Ten years ago you couldn't sell apartments in Rotorua.
"Now people find them so much easier."
Mr Austin was marketing the Malfroy Rd development and said they were priced at $325,000 to $349,000. "I think they will appeal to a number of different buyers - especially empty-nesters or busy professional couples."
Mr Austin said the central location and the low maintenance, quality design would make them attractive to a variety of people.
"You can just lock them up and leave them so they will also be great for people who spend six months of the year here and six months somewhere else."
Mr Austin was also seeing more people who wanted to put their money into a beach house where they spend every weekend and just keep an easy-care town property for the working week.
He told The Daily Post the apartments would be a valuable addition to the local property market because they had three bedrooms, instead of the more common two-bedroom units.
"They will also bring a bit of style to Malfroy Rd.
"We need to see some new, stylish buildings going up in town."