Living local, selling local, experience a refreshing approach to real estate.

Students and staff at Ōrewa Beach School began a new term last Monday in a spruced-up setting, thanks to the efforts of a community “volunteer army” mustered by local estate agent Ben Gibson (HM September 18). Ben has been volunteering his time and labour to help locals with a range of projects this year and has now opened up his initiative to form a group of Coast volunteers. The idea is they can come together when needed to provide free labour in the community, similar to Christchurch’s Student Army. 

Around 40 adults and twice that number of children turned up to the first community project, at Ōrewa Beach School on the last Saturday of the holiday, armed with a wide range of tools and equipment. Ben thanked Ōrewa builder Luke Martens in particular for bringing along a tipper truck laden with tools. For five hours, the crew touched up paint, clipped hedges, weeded and tidied garden beds, trimmed trees, replaced playground bark, water blasted public areas, cleaned up signage and laid paving stones across grassed areas to give children access to a playground without having to get muddy on the way. Ben said some residents from neighbouring Kensington Park came over, saying they were too old to help but bringing food for the recruits.

 The working bee was the first group event organised by Ben, who launched a “Five Hours of Free Labour” initiative early this year, offering his services for five-hour stints to community groups in the area. 

Harcourts Orewa salesperson Ben Gibson, who sold the Pine Road property, said the owners were almost in tears when the hammer came down. “It was an absolute humdinger and the price achieved, no one could believe it.”

Gibson said the property was only on the market for two days before the vendors accepted a pre-auction offer, with the property selling at auction four days later.