Want to live in a Truman Show home?

An Auckland development company is planning to build an American style community, based on a Hollywood movie set, in Taupo.
Kensington Properties is developing 20ha on Huka Falls Rd, including the existing Huka Village Resort and the old Radio Network building.
The development is pitched as a secure community and the design is based on the Florida township, Seaside, which was used as the set for the movie, The Truman Show.
Seaside has been criticised as a manufactured fantasy, but the community-orientated design with narrow streets to encourage walking and balconies facing streets to reduce crime appealed to Kensington Properties.
General manager Philip Lindsey said the new development would include a range of different housing, including holiday homes, boutique stores and a French garden. The company has already been landscaping the 4000sqm French-themed garden on the land where public concerts and events will be held on a regular basis for residents, and small boutique stores will be built to provide locals a place to shop. At this stage the number and cost of housing was not finalised but the development would include five-bedroom family homes as well as two-bedroom apartment style buildings.
The company is also revamping the existing Huka Village Resort, with the possibility of upgrading it to an international standard on the cards. The Auckland man said Taupo was chosen for the development because of its growing popularity as a destination.
"It's in a great location, we think of it as the Queenstown of the North Island," he said.
The land is expected to be developed over the next five to seven years, with stage one, building family housing, starting within the next couple of months. Kensington Properties is also building a similar community worth around $300 million at Orewa on the former Puriri Park Holiday Resort. The two projects will be among the country's largest housing programmes.