Ngāti Whatua would certainly favour Quay Park over Wynyard Wharf or Eden Park options. Why? Because they own the land so would receive huge money each year from the Stadium.
For those who think the Quay Park Stadium on leasehold land is an excellent idea, might want to consider this....
Te Tōangaroa Quay Park leasehold fee spiral fear
Owners of an 81-unit Auckland apartment complex fear annual leasehold ground rents could leap from $16,000/unit to $30,000/unit next year but the landowner says nothing is decided yet.
Dr Michael Rehm, body corporate chairman of Parnell Terraces near the railway line, said increased height and density planning allowances could hugely spike land values and result in a big ground rent leap from August 2025 when the new rents will begin.
Leasehold payments of $16,000/year per unit at Parnell Terraces have been charged since 2018.
But the seven-yearly review will set new rates from 2025-2032, he said.
And $30,000/year would be the stand-still do-nothing cost of simply owning one of the Parnell Terraces’ unit titles, because apartment owners don’t own the land those units stand on.
“You’ll have a situation where there will be wholesale defaults,” Rehm, a University of Auckland academic, predicted, fearing unit owners would be unable to afford the rise.
“We will get a letter in March next year that will give the assessment of the land value. Then, we will most likely get a valuer and challenge that. Because of the increase in height allowance, we expect to be charged around $30,000 per annum per unit,” he said.
Grant Kemble, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa chief executive, encouraged people not to leap to any conclusions about the reset in leasehold fees at Quay Park and in Parnell next year.
“There will be a valuation etc process to go through and we don’t think it’s useful to speculate before then,” Kemble said. “It would be unhelpful to all parties involved to speculate on the outcome of the August 2025 ground rent review. We have a well-defined and transparent process outlined in our ground leases with each of our lessees that we will follow when the time comes.”
But Rehm said many other Te Tōangaroa Quay Park and Parnell leases on Māori-owned land would come up for review early next year.
The problems he and his neighbours face will be reflected
throughout the area, he predicted.
Other buildings on leasehold land in the area include the Spark Arena, a Woolworths supermarket, and large apartment blocks
Scene One, Scene Two, and Scene Three, many office blocks, hotels, shops and car-parking spaces, the BNZ offices, apartments at Cotesmore Way and Dovedale Place, Grant Central serviced apartments, Hudson Brown apartments, Les Mills Britomart, the Adina Apartment Hotel Auckland Britomart, the Docks and the Landings apartments, Mirage apartments and Quay Park Health Centre.
In 1996, Ngāti Whātua bought the ex-railway lands known as Quay Park from the Crown and on-sold leasehold interests for development, retaining land ownership.
The latest annual report for Whai Rawa for the year to June 30, 2023, says: “Investment properties since the inception of Whai Rawa in 2013 have been very positive, with the aggregate valuation rising from $544 million in FY13 to $1399m in FY23.”
The Court of Appeal
ruled this month in favour of Whai Rawa and against Parnell Terraces in the leasehold land dispute. Unit owners sought to claim the Māori entity’s leases should either be set aside or that their rent be varied on the basis that it was either harsh or unconscionable, or had been used in a harsh or unconscionable manner.
Whai Rawa owns more than 160ha of commercial and development land including big ex-Navy North Shore plots.
Rehm estimates around 15,000 homes and units are on leasehold land in New Zealand and has noted British moves to reform fees on this form of tenure.
CBD leasehold, Seascape, apartments, Mt Eden and Ikea: all covered in today's column.
www.nzherald.co.nz
