Frankton units meet pent-up demand

Otago Daily Times

16-05-2025

An unparalleled number of planned housing complexes in and around Queenstown's Frankton Flats is meeting a range of market demand, including even sub-$700,000 units.
About to get under way is Safari Group's first local post-Covid development, Mountain Oak.
It's a 141-unit residential complex in Remarkables Park that has a starting price of $639,000 — "the lowest entry point in the market", Bayleys projects GM Gavin Lloyd says.
Gibbons Co has also launched The Crest Chalets above Country Lane, featuring 86 one-bedroom chalets from $669,000 and 14 one-bedroom cabins from $689,000.
The developer's also finishing off the 226-unit two-bedroom Five Mile Villas, priced from $869,000.
About 250 people turned out for its first showhome opening early this month.
Local Bayleys managing director David Gubb says that sends a clear signal.
"Queenstown's market is hungry for quality, attainable housing, and Five Mile Villas is meeting that demand head-on."
The showhome was "a litmus test for pent-up demand in a market constrained by land supply, planning challenges and construction costs".
"What's encouraging is this isn't speculative demand, it's grounded in need. First-home buyers, key workers and investors are responding to fundamentals — location, design efficiency and long-term rental viability — not hype."
A third Gibbons Co complex, the premium Lakehouse Villas, off Frankton Rd, comprises 63 architecturally designed, freehold homes overlooking Frankton Arm.
Ninety percent sold within six months of release.
"Flexibility to use these homes for personal and visitor accommodation is a game-changer," Suzie Wingglesworth, Bayleys' national director projects says.
She notes Redwood Group also has year-round visitor accommodation consent for the 180 residences in its three-stage Kawarau Villas project near Remarkables Park Town Centre.
Bayleys' local CEO Stacy Coburn notes council has also helped by rezoning land resulting from its spatial plan.
An example, he says, is the 27-hectare Frankton North area, opposite Five Mile, where Latitude 45's developing Waipuna Rise — a boutique collection of apartments and terrace homes with self-contained studios.
Development's also about to start on a huge worker housing complex on the corner of the state highway and Hansen Rd — initially on top of a car storage building.
Coburn says Frankton lends itself to medium-density apartments. "And when you see a growth rate annually between 8% and 9% for Queenstown, we've got to allow for this growing population — as long as the infrastructure tries to align."
He also notes the investor market's back, spurred in part by the return of tax deductability. Short A-frame timeframe
The developer of The Crest Chalets — 100 proposed one-bedroom residential units above Queenstown's Country Lane precinct — hopes to start work on-site in October with a completion date 12 months later.
Mountain Scene revealed this month Kurt Gibbons' Gibbons Co has applied for resource consent for 86 A-frame chalets, and 14 elevated single-level cabins off Hansen Rd, having bought the 3.1396ha block last October.
He's also applied for six business units on just over 11,000sqm of flat land at the bottom of the site.
Gibbon says his aim is to provide freehold product below $1million "and that doesn't have body corporate fees and anything else associated with it".
"The theme of this stunning project is the mountains, and each property comes with the most spectacular view," local Bayleys salesperson Sarena Glass says.
"The high-end design is similar to what you would find in the European alps, there's nothing else quite like this in Queenstown."
The architect's Designgroup Stapleton Elliott in partnership with Gibbons Co.