A large Horowhenua rural property, bounding the Tararua Forest Park and ideally suited to hunting, sold in early September after a marketing campaign that attracted huge interest.
Comprising predominantly pristine native bush in a balance of re-growth and podocarp forest on contour mainly ranging from undulating to medium hill, the 647-hectare block was offered for deadline sale. PGG Wrightson Real Estate Hastings branch manager Gary Brooks led a joint listing, in a collaboration between the company’s Hawkes Bay and Manawatu including colleagues Ian Ross of Feilding and Hastings-based Hamish Goodwin.
“In total we have had more than 140 enquires, with 14,000 views for the online listing. That resulted in significant interest from several motivated parties, including two in a position to make a cash offer. Our vendor accepted one of those, at close to the property’s registered value. Two Feilding based hunting enthusiasts who have been looking for an opportunity of this sort for several years were the satisfied purchasers,” says Gary Brooks.
Situated 42 kilometres south of Palmerston North, 125 kilometres north of Wellington and 10 kilometres east of Shannon, the property is described as an impressive recreational hunting block, carefully managed with enjoyment of the bush and good hunting in mind, including well maintained all-terrain and four-wheel drive vehicle tracks. It provides habitat for plenty of red and fallow deer, plus some wild pigs and goats, and includes a one-bedroom hunters’ hut alongside a two-bedroom sleepout. Opportunities for future development include tourism hunting, as a deer park, or for horse trekking, mountain biking or bird watching.
A high proportion of the interest in the property was from overseas, via Gary Brooks’ affiliation with Sports Afield. Founded in 1887 Sports Afield is the world’s oldest outdoor recreation publication. It numbers 70,000 subscribers and is active in several other media and related enterprises, including Sports Afield Trophy Properties, a broad-based network of specialised real estate professionals who market ranch, agricultural, woodland, forest, equestrian, waterfront, hunting, fishing, and recreational outdoor properties.
Gary says that connection accounted for much of the reaction to the property’s marketing campaign.
“We could have sold this property several times over, and the market response was phenomenal, including interested parties inspecting it telling us this is the best hunting block they have seen. Our backup cash offer was from a New Zealander based in the United States, and we know of numerous other potential buyers for properties of this type in the same category, not to mention others who are motivated and well resourced, though would require OIO approval to complete such a purchase.”
Sports Afield estimates approximately 50 per cent of its readers are multi-millionaires, who typically spend more than $US200,000 each per annum on hunting trips.
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