More room, and a train to town
The new Paerātā train station has opened. See what's possible at Paerata Rise, with House and Land packages and Ready to Build plans from Landmark Homes.
For years the trade-off south of Auckland was the same one. More land, a bigger home, a section your children could actually run around in, and in exchange, a drive.
On 2 August that changed. Paerātā has its own railway station.
It's the first new station between Papakura and Pukekohe in more than fifty years, and it puts Paerata Rise directly onto Auckland's Southern Line. The first weekday train out of Pukekohe leaves at 5.11am and is in the central city by 6.24am. There's park and ride for 350 cars, a new bus route through the township, and footpaths and cycleways to the platform. From there you can reach the city centre, Middlemore and Auckland Airport. When the City Rail Link opens, services run every ten minutes at peak.
But the station on its own undersells what's happening.
More than a railway line
Franklin, Karaka and Drury are zoned for major growth, and much of what comes with that is already underway rather than sitting on a planning map.
A new hospital is planned at Drury. Kiwi Property, the developers behind Sylvia Park, have a shopping centre planned for the same area. Freight and commercial operators are relocating south. The line is electrified from Pukekohe all the way into the city, with stations at Drury and Ngākōroa either side of Paerātā.
It's a shift the local team has watched arrive.
“It's a future urban plan that's starting to move this way. Public transport, shopping, health, all of it is coming to the area,” says Landmark Homes Auckland South and Franklin franchisee, Michael Walters. “The rail is certainly part of that story, but it's part of that wider plan. It's a moving and shaking area.”
The usual pattern in a growth suburb is that the houses come first and the amenities follow, sometimes by a decade. Here it's running the other way.
A township, not a subdivision
Paerata Rise sits between Karaka and Pukekohe, in the rolling country of Franklin, around forty minutes south of central Auckland and five from Pukekohe.
It was planned as a township rather than a housing estate, and the difference shows. Around 4,500 homes eventually, but also a primary school, early learning centres, walking and cycling trails, a retail precinct, and green space designed in rather than left over. The streets follow the land. There's a golf club, and a playground people drive to from other suburbs.
What it hasn't had until now is a way out that doesn't involve the motorway. That was the last piece.
Worth another look
If you've been weighing up a section in Franklin against something smaller closer in, the calculation has moved. A home with a north-facing courtyard and a double garage, and a commute you can read a book on.
If you've got teenagers, they can get themselves to school, to work, into town on a Saturday, without you in the driver's seat. That's not a small thing.
And if you're thinking about the next thirty years rather than the next three, somewhere that's just gained rapid transit tends to keep getting easier to live in.
What's possible here
Landmark Homes Auckland South and Franklin have House and Land packages available at Paerata Rise. Each one shows a plan matched to a typical section in the stage, and every plan can be adapted.
The Cambridge 204.8m² | 3 bed | 2.5 bath | 2 car | Two levels
Classic Linea weatherboard, and a two-storey layout that keeps the master suite downstairs with the living areas. Day to day it lives like a single level home, with two more bedrooms and an extended landing upstairs, ready when family or guests arrive. It's drawn for a site with northern access, a tricky aspect to get sun into, and the plan is designed to make the most of it. Living areas flow out to a sheltered outdoor room, and there's a walk-in scullery behind the kitchen.
The Tairua 173.5m² | 3 bed | 2 bath | 2 car
Gable roofline, weatherboard-look cladding, and a layout built around privacy. Kitchen, dining and living run through the centre and open onto covered outdoor living, so you'll use it in October as readily as in February. The master sits alone at one end with a walk-in robe and ensuite, while the other two bedrooms are grouped at the far end with their own bathroom. There's a study nook off the hall, a scullery behind the kitchen, and a double garage with internal access.
The Rakino 192.3m² | 3 bed | 2.5 bath | 2 car
The mid-century plan. Low roofline, timber battens, and a home built around light rather than around a corridor. The kitchen, dining and living open two ways, west to one courtyard and east to the other, so you can follow the sun through the day and there's always a sheltered side. Nearly 75m² of covered outdoor space, which is a lot for a home of this size.
The Ballad 180.3m² | 3 bed | 2.5 bath | 2 car
Real street presence, a central kitchen, and open plan living positioned for indoor-outdoor flow, with the bedroom wing set behind to shelter it from the wind. There's a study near the front entry, which works as a home office if you're going to be on the train three days a week rather than five, or as a fourth bedroom if you're not.
Just a starting point
People find a plan they like, save it, and turn up thinking the decision is made. It almost never is.
Every Landmark home begins with a full design brief. An hour and a half, room by room, working through how you actually live before anything is drawn.
From there, a Ready to Build plan can be mirrored or rotated to suit which way your section faces. Wings can be shortened or widened to fit inside boundaries. Bedrooms can move for privacy. And the look can change entirely on the same footprint, so if the layout works but mid-century isn't you, the roofline and cladding become a different house.
“A floor plan can become almost any style,” says Michael. “The layout can stay exactly as it is, and the look evolves around it.”
Comparing apples with apples
Two packages can look similar on price and floor area and still be very different things.
The number that matters is the one that gets you to the keys. Some of the biggest costs in a build sit in the ground rather than the house: earthworks, drainage, consent fees, retaining, landscaping, fencing, the driveway. A package that leaves those out will always look sharper on paper, and the difference tends to surface once you're committed.
So it's worth asking the same questions of everyone you talk to. What's in the price. What isn't. What's an allowance rather than a fixed cost. What the land figure assumes.
Landmark's House and Land package prices include the site work as well as the home, and state the land allowance they're based on, so you can see what you're comparing and price a different section yourself if you find one you prefer.
None of this is unique to any one builder or any one subdivision. It's just the difference between a headline number and a real one, and it's worth ten minutes before you fall in love with a plan.
Know the ground
The Auckland South and Franklin team have been building in Franklin for years. They know which sections need what, where the costs hide, and what a covenant will and won't let you do.
Site assessments are free, and worth having before you commit to a section rather than after. Contact our team to talk through what's possible at Paerata Rise.
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