Housing entrepreneurs Ockham Residential launch their 14th Auckland apartment project with plenty of KiwiBuilds included
Thursday, 24 September 2020
Auckland housing entrepreneurs Ockham Residential have launched their fourteenth apartment development, Aroha, and are planning another development with even more KiwiBuild options.
Ockham Residential launched the Aroha apartment development in Avondale via livestream on Wednesday, the fourteeenth since being founded in 2009 by entrepreneurs Mark Todd and Benjamin Preston.
The Aroha development, at the intersection of Great North Road and Ash Street, is their third with Marutūāhu Iwi, a Hauraki Collective of tribes.
The Auckland company plans 47 KiwiBuild apartments in the 117-apartment Aroha complex and another 85 Kiwibuilds in a future development and fourth venture with Marutūāhu in central Auckland in February.
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“It’s been an absolutely delightful journey over four and a half years since we first sat down and talked. The first project we did together was Tuatahi which went very, very well for us. Kokihi, which is more or less sold out over the Waterview Tunnel, has been fantastic,” Todd said at the launch.
“And I greatly respect this relationship we’ve built, and we’re looking forward to doing many more developments over the coming years.”
Ockham is increasing its development of KiwiBuild options. It started with 19 in the Tuatahi development in Mt Albert, increasing to 47 each in Kokihi in Waterview and Aroha in Avondale, and is planning 85 for the next development.
Colliers International’s latest Auckland Apartment Project Survey shows the affordability of KiwiBuild apartments are drawing first home buyers and helping support the apartment market in Auckland.
Ockham bought the Avondale land for Aroha from Auckland Council development agency Panuku.
“It’s our second project there, and we love the location. It just epitomises what Auckland is going to be in the future with our mass investments in the CRL (City Rail Link), mass transit, mass transport and streetscapes and urbanism and revitalising our town centres.
“Avondale is one of the key spots that Panuku are regenerating over the next 10 years, and we’re working with them to make sure this is a special project,” Todd said.
One-bedroom and two-bedroom KiwiBuild options at Aroha are priced from $450,000 and $520,000 respectively.
The open market apartments come with a car park but some one bedroom units and the Kiwibuild apartments do not. A car park can be bought for $60,000.
Ockham is know for the quality of its buildings, and the “Ockham look” of brick and concrete.
It made headlines in 2018 with its 33-apartment development Daisy in Kingsland with no car parks for apartment residents, just space for two shared cars, 12 scooter parks and 40 bicycle spaces.
But it is also this country’s only completed 10 Homestar apartment building. Its numerous eco features include individual apartment heat recovery ventilation systems, a centralised hot water system run by solar-powered heat pumps that provide 30 per cent of the required heat annually, and rainwater harvesting.