Beach house sales all washed out

Auckland's beach real estate is shattering dreams of making money at Piha with an excess of property and plummeting prices...

Retired tomato grower and surfboard builder Peter Byer spent $2 million and 11 years subdividing his land into nine 4000sq m sections on Seaview Rd. They have been on the market for three years, and only one has sold, recently for $435,000, just over half its initial valuation three years ago.

Bankrupt Auckland developer Peter Lockie recently lost more than $500,000 on another Seaview Rd property. He bought the three bedroom Piha house on 8000sq m 18 months ago for $1.5m, but it settled this week by mortgagee auction for less than $1m.

People were feeling the pinch and deciding to sell their West Coast holiday homes.

Co-owner Jim Trubuhovich said vendors were unrealistic and wanted too much for their properties, forgetting last year very little property sold because of the recession.

Overseas investors were still interested in buying prime coastal real estate.This week, Piha Property Brokers' director Phil Parks sold a 5ha section for $1m to a couple from Switzerland.

"People are absolutely petrified of the consent and council process, the price of bare land, a six to eight months waiting for consent and incredible bureaucracy," he said.

Source: NZ Herald