{"id":69259,"date":"2025-10-10T04:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T04:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/69259\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T04:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T04:37:09","slug":"beach-town-on-auckland-doorstep-to-get-new-zealand-leading-eco-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/69259\/","title":{"rendered":"Beach town on Auckland doorstep to get New Zealand-leading eco development"},"content":{"rendered":"

There will be between 600 and 750 houses<\/a>, each with their own solar panels, rainwater collection tanks and primary wastewater treatment, connecting to the development\u2019s micro energy grid, stormwater detention ponds and wastewater treatment plant.<\/p>\n

About 500,000 native trees will be planted to offset the carbon used in the building process<\/a>, a further 50ha of existing native bush and wetlands will be protected and 15km of walking and cycling tracks opened to the public<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Resilience in the face of adverse weather is an important part of the project, said Fontein, whose home was without power for 12 days after the Mangawhai tornado<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The micro energy grid will include a large-scale battery facility which can store the energy generated by the solar panels, using an AI system to manage<\/a> demand, including limited supply if there is a power cut, he said.<\/p>\n

The development is also ready to cope with the large amounts of rain which hits Mangawhai all at once<\/a>, with its stormwater detention dams able to hold the rain from a 1 in 500-year flood, then release it slowly back into the catchment.<\/p>\n

\u2018Lifestyle blocks become a lifestyle sentence\u2019<\/p>\n

\"MangawhaiMangawhai Hills director Patrick Fontein says international trends show a demand for environmental developments.<\/p>\n

Fontein is clear who his target market is: Auckland empty nesters who are looking to sell up and get out of the city<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At 60 years old, he admitted it is his own age group who are the target – those whose children are older but are still fit enough to enjoy the outdoors.<\/p>\n

The Mangawhai Hills development offers to do everything for the buyer, from planting trees to managing the likes of electricity and wastewater.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sales target is people who think they want a lifestyle block but find it becomes a lifestyle sentence because they spend all weekend doing maintenance around their block,\u201d Fontein said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re providing the lifestyle for people but it\u2019s low-maintenance lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blocks are 1000 to 1500sq m and include extensive eco-building and landscaping guidelines – including a single-storey restriction.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Mangawhai Hills development, pictured in blue, will include 600 to 750 houses, stormwater retention ponds, walking tracks and native bush reserves.<\/p>\n

Dogs are allowed, as each site will have fencing at the back and sides, but cats not contained on an owner\u2019s property will be at risk of the extensive trapping in the bush, he said.<\/p>\n

Titles will soon be released for the first stage, with sections costing $500,000 to $800,000.<\/p>\n

Fontein said building partners will also start building show homes and will be able to offer house-and-land-packages starting at $1.3 million for a 200sq m home.<\/p>\n

Native bush protected by community trust<\/p>\n

The bush and trails are an essential part of the development, said Fontein, a self-confessed trail runner.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest trends we\u2019ve seen internationally is all the developments have a large trail network, and the trails are to provide active recreation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A community trust will be formed to vest the native bush and wetlands, ensuring they remain open to the public in perpetuity, while the development is also investing heavily to open up the 15ha of trails to the public, Fontein said.<\/p>\n

A private high school, Mangawhai Hills College<\/a>, has already been established onsite to cater for older children in Mangawhai and each student will have a tree planted in their honour, he said.<\/p>\n

Lessons learnt during GFC<\/p>\n

Fontein is all about living, learning and giving back, with many hard lessons learnt during the Global Financial Crisis.<\/p>\n

In 2008, his north Auckland development Kensington Park nearly folded<\/a> after property values nose-dived and the banks called in their loans.<\/p>\n

The development managed to go ahead – with properties now worth more than neighbouring apartments – but Fontein learnt not to trust banks and has set up Mangawhai Hills with private investors.<\/p>\n

This means not only that the development is not vulnerable to the likes of another Global Financial Crisis but a long-term outlook can be taken, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe environmental strategy needs a very long focus. Setting up our own power company and wastewater treatment plant takes quite a lot of capital to do, but I know that they\u2019re right in the long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mangawhai Hills by the numbers:<\/p>\n

600-750 houses total, on 185ha50ha vested in public trust, 15km cycling and walking trails sections 1000 to 1500sq m57 sections stage onecost $500,000-$800,000 per section house and land packages from $1.3m for 200sq m house.<\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There will be between 600 and 750 houses, each with their own solar panels, rainwater collection tanks and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,51,7972,26670,501,29414,170,55312,55314,44973,1017,1866,1888,55316,1333,55317,21520,5620,5844,5511,55315,225,117,111,43,139,529,69,90,8465,33220,15483,21714,1857,3694,61,2951,5427,21732,102,80,55313],"class_list":["post-69259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-auckland","tag-beach","tag-denise","tag-design","tag-developer","tag-development","tag-doorstep","tag-eco","tag-environmental","tag-exclusive","tag-find","tag-first","tag-fontein","tag-get","tag-hectare","tag-hills","tag-interview","tag-journalist","tag-just","tag-mangawhai","tag-market","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-patrick","tag-piper","tag-promising","tag-sections","tag-site","tag-sustainability","tag-to","tag-town","tag-unique","tag-vision","tag-with","tag-zealand","tag-zealandleading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}