Beachside apartment development 40 percent sold

Beachside apartment development 40 percent sold out before going on public sale

Forty percent of Nelson’s latest apartment development complex has been sold off – even before being officially offered for sale to the general public.

The new five-storey 37 apartment block – to be known as Ocean View apartments – sits on Beach Road in Tahunanui, some 500 metres from the shoreline, and overlooking Tahunanui Recreation Reserve.

The complex contains a mix of one, two and three-bedroom residences ranging in price from $645,000 to $1.86 million and is being sold down in two phases – each a mirror image of the other in terms of size and scale.

Work on phase one is scheduled to begin by August this year and be ready for occupancy by December 2018, with work on phase two planned to commence in in third quarter of this year and be completed in early 2019. Access to the Ocean View will be from both Beach Road and Waikare Street.

All four Ocean View penthouse suites – two with floor sizes of 229 square metres and two of 251 square metres – are among the pre-sold apartments, for $1.75 million and $1.85 million respectively. Aimed at the higher-value sector of the market, the Ocean Views complex features a private outdoor swimming pool and gymnasium facilities.

The sell-off of Ocean View apartments has been undertaken by Bayleys Nelson. Interested parties on the company’s private database were contacted in January with pre-public sale opportunities ahead of this week’s official public release of the remaining stock. Since launching initial marketing “under the radar”, some 16 of the 37 apartments had been sold.

The Ocean View apartment block is being built on three sites previously occupied by a trio of nearly 100-year houses, and a neighbouring large undeveloped grass section. Bayleys Nelson salesperson Jeremy Matthews said the level of interest in the complex was unprecedented for a development of this nature in the city.

“The urban intensification of Nelson city is certainly gathering momentum – reflecting the changing social structure of society where people of a more mature age profile no longer have the need for high maintenance gardens in a quarter-acre section, but prefer the ‘lock up and leave’ convenience of apartment living,” Mr Matthews said.

Mr Matthews said the frenetic sell down of the Ocean View development dovetailed behind two other Nelson apartment complex projects brought to the market over the past 15 months. All seven apartments within the River Walk complex in Ajax Avenue were sold off ahead of construction, while eight of the 13 residences in the Betts Corner project were also brought ‘off plan’ in a matter of weeks.

Fellow Bayleys Nelson salesperson Gill Ireland said the majority of buyers already signed up for Ocean Views were ‘empty nesters’ aged in their 50s and 60s. The youngest buyers were a couple in their 30s who purchased a unit with the intention of renting it out, while the oldest buyers were a couple in their 70s who were ‘downsizing’.

“Buyer demographics range from an ex-pat’ Kiwi in Hong Kong looking to return home on his retirement, a UK businessman looking to immigrate to Nelson to be closer to his grandchildren now growing up here, and an Aucklander securing a holiday home, through to Nelson and Marlborough investors,” Ms Ireland said.

Every unit within Ocean View came with at least one car park. Most came with dressing rooms and some had study nooks, she said. Deck sizes for the Ocean View apartments ranged from 12 to 65 metres – which was approximately the same size as a two-bedroom apartment in central Auckland.

“With 40 percent of the project already accounted for, we are confident that the remaining 19 units will be snapped up by the end of autumn. There are still units available on the first, second, and third floors,” Ms Ireland said.

“The entire top floor containing the penthouses is sold out.”

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