Coastal campground set to benefit from Auckland’s growing population

A traditional coastal camping ground on the outskirts of Auckland’s ever-stretching city boundary has been placed on the market for sale – with potential to turn the business into a multi-faceted accommodation venue targeting various pricing levels and quality rating levels.

Port Waikato Holiday Park – an hour’s drive south-west of the city – is spread over five hectares of land and features accommodation options ranging from tent and caravan plots through to budget cabins.

Camp facilities include 85 powered caravan sites, 63 tent sites, nine cabins, and six self-contained motel style units.

The Port Waikato Holiday Park freehold land, buildings and business are being marketed for sale by negotiation through Bayleys Auckland salespeople Meredith Graham and Mike Peterson.

Ms Meredith said the campground business was a virtual ’turn-key’ operation which came complete with a 120 square metre three-bedroom owner/manager’s house, a separate camp management office, a communal kitchen with fridges, freezers and microwave ovens, two separate BBQ areas, a laundry block with coin-operated washers and dryers, and a segregated shower block featuring piped music through a speaker sound system.

Trading accounts show most of the holiday park’s bookings have come through returning campers and caravan site reservations. The campground’s busiest trading period is from the week before Christmas through until the beginning of February when the park operates at full occupancy.

“Humans are creatures of habit. When they find somewhere they love, they tend to return… and that has certainly been the case for guests at the Port Waikato Holiday Park. Underpinning that commitment to the camp site has been the rustic nature of Port Waikato township – just a five minute walk away – which has remained pretty much the way it was from the 1960s and ‘70s,” Ms Graham said.

Port Waikato holiday Park is currently staffed by a family group, with part-time cleaning, and administration workers brought in over the busier summer months. The variously-sized cabins within the holiday park’s inventory have multiple bedding configurations – capable of accommodating between two to five people. For children, the camp site’s playground has the usual array of swings and a slide, along with a huge inflatable in-ground ‘jumping pillow’.

Ms Meredith said the Port Waikato Holiday Park contained vast expanses of flat grassed spaces which were currently under-utilised – and consequently offered multiple development opportunities to take the business to a new level either through the addition of more salubrious cabins, the introduction of high-end camping, or development of a function venue.

“People are becoming more time-squeezed in their lives. Whereas a generation ago campers would have ventured five or six hours in a car to get to their destination, they now only want to drive up to two or three hours,” she said.

“In conjunction with this pressure, we’ve seen the rise in ‘glamping’ – where affluent couples are seeking that ‘camping’ experience under canvas, but want to sleep on an inner-sprung king size mattress, under a double-layer duvet, with a bedside table, and a bottle of wine or a few beers in the fridge in the corner of the tent.

“They are seeking the comforts of a four star hotel in an environment replicating a camp site.

It’s a huge potential for traditional holiday park businesses such as Port Waikato Holiday Park which has the benefit of available space which could be developed into a glamping accommodation option.

“Alternatively, there is the potential for adding bigger apartment-style units with a more personalised and high level of amenities – such as a spa pool on the deck, SKY TV connection, wood-fired pizza oven for outdoor cooking, and hotel-grade fittings and furnishings.

“Of course, this higher quality accommodation option brings with it a higher yield.”

Mr Peterson said that with accommodation becoming harder to find in both Auckland and Hamilton, not to mention becoming more expensive, there was an opportunity to develop the long-stay residency schedule at Port Waikato Holiday Park.

“That could be on a 46 or 47 week calendar – with long stay tenants vacating their leased dwellings over the higher-yielding Christmas and New Year holiday period,” he said.

Mr Peterson said the camp’s location drew a customer base from both the Auckland and Hamilton regions – both of which have undergone substantial population growth over the past six years. That population surge had placed stresses on both city’s housing supplies.

“Any plans to expand the number of accommodation units within the camp could well factor in the potential of repurposing those standalone dwellings as leased residential dwellings in addition to existing stock,” he said.

“Essentially, it’s all about finding opportunities to lift the overall yield of the property by maximizing the potential offered not only by the existing infrastructure, but looking closely at what else could be done to drive revenues.

“While there is a ‘superette’ some 15 minutes walk away, there is considerable potential to expand on the limited amount of retail offerings run from the campground office.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media