"Great Northern Villas"
Waikari.
North Canterbury
 

We have been working on this development since 2011 and throughout that time we have been engaged in an ongoing battle with the Hurunui District Council in regards to their insistence that we fund the roading infrastructure around the properties and their continued refusal to approve our subdivision application which effectively left us unable to sell our Villas. The roads and the buildings that were on the properties have been there for 150 years, this Council along with the previous administrations refusal to address the stormwater management of the road above and beside the properties does not make it the current property owner’s responsibility.

We chose this location primarily for it’s elevated view over the valley beyond but more specifically, for its proximity to the Medical Centre and the Health NZ Hospital Age Care facility which are both adjacent to us within walking distance. Patient registration is readily accepted which is not necessarily the case in many regios and communities within New Zealand.

Earlier this year we succeeded in forcing the Council to remove the imposed roading conditions from the subdivision resource consent going back to 2011, so at last now we can move forward in continuing with the development of our village being the two homes which are under construction and new dwellings on the surrounding land that we own.

We currently have one home available for sale from stage one which now has freehold title:          

No 8 Oxford Street, Waikari, 465sqm site, 182sqm dwelling with 2 x bedrooms, 2 x full bathrooms, double garage, 2 x decks and an outdoor patio for the BBQ, large open plan living area, elevated location with great views over the reserve and valley beyond.

Enquiries are welcome.

OCCUPANCY:

Finding the right occupation option to suit all parties:

In 2020, in an attempt to find a means of occupation for our houses, the company applied to the Retirement Villages Registrar to register all our properties as a Retirement village which would effectively allow us to be able to sell the right to occupy through the “Occupation Right Agreement” model used by Rymans etc. This meant that we did not have to subdivide or to have separate titles to each home, and we are entitled to have multiple dwellings as of right on each site to a minimum area of 250sqm (Hurunui zoned Business 1), with the village individual residences being identified on a village site plan for the benefit of the occupiers. We also applied at that time for an exemption from the requirement to appoint a Statutory Supervisor due to the small size of our proposed village. That Exemption was approved in May 2022 and then amended in September 2022 but with the requirement as a result of the small size of our village, for separate titles for each dwelling to protect each residents’ interest, which effectively took us back to square one with the councils imposed roading conditions. We agreed with the Registrars’ requirement for separate titles for each resident, so we decided to appoint a Statutory Supervisor (Covenant Trustee Services). That subsequent consent to act on our behalf gave us the legal right to advertise the Village units for sale which is not allowed under section 25 of the Retirement Villages Act 2003 (attached) unless the village is registered.

The feedback from that marketing exercise highlighted the inherent resistance to the current retirement village “Ryman model” by the Baby Boomer generation, and my own personal dislike of the “ORA” model being of that generation myself. The generation before us embraced the ORA option” but on reading numerous articles it indicates many of them have not fared well out of it. That resistance is compounded by inflation driven high entry cost and percentage based (25% to 30%) exit fee (kindly named the “Deferred Management Fee”), the numbers were then beginning to get extremely large. All these factors led us to the decision to withdraw our application to register. No matter how we looked at it, we needed and wanted separate titles to each residence, and at this point we were still unable to sell either the two completed houses or the two under construction due to the council imposed roading restrictions which they had directly refused, through their solicitors, to remove or waive.

We then proceeded with the subdivision of our first property at 93 Princes Street Waikari, being carried out on the basis of undoing the amalgamation of the two lots 172 and 173, DP 452 which had been amalgamated in 1868 to accommodate the building of the “Great Northern Hotel” which was to straddle the boundary between the two Lots, and then to address the subdivision of each of those individual titles as a two lot subdivision which did not trigger the previously imposed roading condition clauses in the subdivision application that was originally applied for in 2011, the property was already two Lots at that time but that designation was never accepted by the Council.

This process has allowed us to progress from a subdivision consent with five pages of roading conditions, to a one-page consent approval with NO roading conditions.

We can now confirm that we can freely move forward in our endeavour to build our specific design homes in a delightful elevated location at an affordable price with separate property title security for each resident.

The first key issue to ensure compliance with the “Retirement Villages Act 2003” is that no specific services are offered by the property owner being: “Great Northern Villas Ltd” as the landlord of the individual properties. All the facilities available in the community (Medical Centre and Hospital) and sports and recreation clubs (Golf, Lawn Bowls, Tennis, etc) are open to all members of our community, being the general public.

The second key issue is the legal content of our proposed “Life-time Lease Agreement” which provides security of the residents tenure, and the financial security for the purchase price of their Lease Agreement, which is achieved by way of a priority charge in favour of the resident, registered on the unencumbered title for their own individual unit and to clearly identify the obligations of both the Resident and Landlord and the terms of the termination of the Lease Agreement on the residents chosen expiry date.

The third key issue was the affordability of the means of occupation of the homes in our village:

Effectively GNV Ltd is just a Landlord and we are keen to proceed with pursuing a Life-Time Lease Agreement (as being similar to a commercial lease agreement with a Lease purchase price and a monthly rental component) as a means of occupation and my objective in that is to have a lower entry purchase price being effectively the value of the building eg: $545,000, and a lower Termination Fee eg: 15% to allow for maintenance and renovation (30% is too high), but with a ground rental sum as a monthly payment to cover the cost of the land, plus all of the site services and landscaping etc. The resident pays the rates and insurance for their property. Resident has a priority charge registered over the unencumbered property title in their name to provide security of tenure and financial security for the return of their final payment. The one additional option I am looking at including, is the possibility of the ground rental being able to be capitalised over the duration of the Lease, to be added to the 15% Termination Fee (the capitalised sum will be higher than the monthly ground rental to cover the cost of the use of the money). This option is basically adopting the principles of a reverse mortgage (which most people don't like) but allows the resident entry into their home without them having to pay the monthly ground rental, and hopefully will allow them to still have some surplus cash from the sale of their home (plus savings if any) to enjoy their retirement years. This Figure plus an additional fee or interest component for choosing this option (as mentioned above), will be deducted from the Lease purchase price minus the Termination Fee at the expiry of the Lease Agreement.

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Background and History of our Village Name:

The site in Waikari was first surveyed in 1868 as per the original survey plan DP452:

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That is us in the middle, being Lots 170, 171, 172, 173 and 174. The location was effectively the CBD of the township facing the proposed Railway Station on the new rail link between Christchurch and Nelson. The reserve is still there but the “Great Northern Railway Line” was abandoned at the end of the second world war. The Hotel, aptly name “The Great Northern” along with the Four-Square Store, the local Garage and the Waikari Hospital all remained in this wonderful north facing elevated position for the following 150years.

We are now moving forward in taking advantage of this great location and the adjoining health care services, in developing an affordable high quality retirement option that is NOT a Registered Retirement Village, with the associated high costs of those facilities. Our preferred means of occupation is by way of a “Life-time Lease” providing security of tenure, and the financial security of the Lease purchase cost by way of a priority charge being registered on the property title in favour of the resident. The resident choses the Termination date, building maintenance is the responsibility of the property owner being Great Northern Villas Ltd, and a weekly rental capitalisation option is available if required, to help ensure the resident has sufficient surplus capital remaining to enjoy their retirement years worry free.

Click on the button below, to View the video of the demolition of the Great Northern Hotel as a NZ Fire Service training exercise in 2013, and an early interview with Myself and Anessia as the owners outlining our Retirement Lifestyle vision at that time.