72 | Kapiti development ticks the boxes T T Virginia Wright Florian Kapiti will offer 64 townhouses the majority of which will be two bedroom. Thames Pacific: Florian Kapiti DEVELOPMENT Stephen Sutorius established his residential and commercial property development and investment company Thames Pacific in 2010. While earlier projects took place in Auckland and Sydney by 2018 they were focusing on the Wellington market. Their most recent development there, The Paddington, follows Thames Pacific’s usual model. “Predominantly we do residential developments whereby we buy some land, design the development with one of the leading architects that we use, then sell off the plans. “They’re purchased off the plans with a 10 percent deposit and once we’ve got our presales in place, we find a construction company to build the project for us and then upon completion we hand over the keys and settle the final balance at that time,” explains Stephen. The Paddington in Te Aro, Wellington City, is a good example with 151, mainly two-bedroom with some three-bedroom, town houses in the centre of the city near Courtenay Place. With stage one complete they’ve handed the keys to the first 39 houses over to their owners, and stages two and three are nearing completion. Sold as “inner city terraced living”, they were sold off the plans two and a half years ago for roughly $800,000. “They’re extremely well-located terraced housing that won’t ever get repeated in Wellington City,” says Stephen. “When they’re coming up for settlement now they’re being valued for around 1.1 million so while it’s still a lot of money they’ve had strong capital growth.” It’s a value proposition that was recognised early by investors who accounted for up to 75% of the original sales off the plans. While one can’t count on the New Zealand property market to always run hot, Thames Pacific’s more recent investment in the Kapiti Coast region anticipated the strong value proposition that Transmission Gully would bring to the area. Stephen was confident that once access to the coast was fixed growth would follow thanks also to the area’s many other attractions. “It’s got its own microclimate here running about 2 degrees warmer than town, and with less wind,” says Stephen. “It’s close to Paraparaumu Beach and it’s a large growth area thanks to Transmission Gully which has dropped the commute time from Wellington City to Paraparaumu from around 35 minutes to more like 20 with no traffic lights along the way.” Called Florian Kapiti the development will offer 64 townhouses the majority of which will be two bedroom, some three bedroom. The site faces onto a large bush reserve and care has been taken to give each townhouse their own outdoor living areas with easy indoor/outdoor flow. “We’ve paid attention to connectivity,” says Stephen. “Kapiti council’s recently spent 10 million dollars putting new cycleways in which we’ve got direct access to, you can jump on your bike and be at the beach within about eight minutes. Coastlands Shopping Mall is a six minute walk from the site as well, so everything’s on your doorstep” Stephen’s instinct for finding sites with the features buyers want once again proved true. The project sold out on the same day they launched it last year, this time with more like 60% buyers and 40% investors. “There were a number of younger buyers looking to secure their first property along with some investors who could see the growth coming to the area with Transmission Gully.” Stephen sees it as an attractive prospect for these first home buyers. If they can find the 10% deposit they have two to three years to finance the rest and can enjoy the capital gain in the meantime, subject of course to what happens with the housing market. “We choose our contractors carefully and they’re well-designed and well-built residential townhouses. We aim to price them to be affordable to a wider range of the market so they’re not super-high spec but we use high quality finishes and high quality products. At the end of the day we hope we’re doing our bit to help address New Zealand’s housing shortage.” They try to keep their dwellings around the $800,000 mark, and while you might find something cheaper Thames Pacific are firm believers in the old adage about location, location, location. “We know that if the market’s good or bad the demand from people who want to be in the best locations will always be there.” PLIMMER PLUMBING LTD With over 40 years’ experience in the Plumbing industry incorporating Commercial, Residential Builds and Civil Infrastructure, we are a one-stop-shop for all your Plumbing, Gas tting and Drainlaying needs. We have a fully quali ed team ready to assist, from the design stage right through to providing preventative & scheduled maintenance. We uphold a high quality of delivery, fair and honest pricing and excellent inter-trade communication. (04) 565 1913 / www.plimmer.co.nz / plumbers@plimmer.co.nz JMA Decorators Ltd the complete solution for your premises including protective coatings and abrasive blasting JMA Decorators Ltd is pleased to be associated with Thames Pacific on this project T. 0800 344 455 E. admin@jmadecorators.co.nz W. www.jmadecorators.co.nz
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