Wanaka sections snapped up

Chris Macfie (left), of Riverside Educare, discusses progress with Infinity Investment Group...
Chris Macfie (left), of Riverside Educare, discusses progress with Infinity Investment Group sales manager Patrick Waser. Photo by Mark Price.
The availability of cheaper sections in Wanaka is drying up rapidly.

On Thursday, property developer Infinity Investment Group said it had 18 unsold sections in its Riverside Park subdivision at Albert Town.

By Friday, the number was down to 15 and sales manager Patrick Waser said another two were being signed up at the weekend. Riverside Park started out with 253 sections, and in some years as few as two sections were sold.

However, this year, so far, 80 have sold.

Those remaining are priced between $179,000 and $199,000. There are still sections for sale in other parts of Wanaka, but generally they are more expensive.

Infinity managing director Paul Croft said sales this year had ''gone crazy''.

Mr Croft said it appeared those buying Riverside sections were Wanaka residents selling up houses built as holiday homes to move into warmer modern homes.

Demand was traditionally strong from Otago and Southland buyers but in the past two years there were more Christchurch buyers and, more recently, Auckland buyers cashing up their homes and moving south for an early retirement.

Mr Croft said Infinity set prices for sections according to valuations done every three to six months, and values had increased about 10% over the last year.

Despite that increase, interest had become stronger, he said.

He said a shortage of cheaper sections was looming in Wanaka, at least in the short term.

One of Riverside's selling points was its closeness to Wanaka.

When asked where buyers would find cheaper sections in future, Wanaka's biggest developer, Alan Dippie, of Willowridge Developments Ltd, pointed to his Timsfield development at Lake Hawea and Luggate Park.

While Timsfield had only one section available for sale, he was planning to bring the next stage on to the market early next year. And sections in his recently acquired Luggate Park subdivision were also likely to come on the market early next year.

Mr Dippie has approval for the major Three Parks development on the outskirts of Wanaka as well, and although currently focused on development of its commercial land, said ''quite a few'' residential sections would be available in 18 to 24 months.

''But there's no doubt there's going to be a wee bit of a short term shortage, just in terms of the development companies working in Wanaka catching up.''

As an indicator of who is buying sections at Riverside Park, one of the first buildings being constructed in the final stage of the development is a preschool for up to 45 children.

Chris Macfie, of Riverside Educare, said the preschool site would include a cafe. Another preschool for 65 children was built in the early days of the subdivision.

-mark.price@odt.co.nz

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