Savills, through agents Paddy Callesen and John Jefferson , has sold two greenfields North Shore sites for $21 million to luxury brand dealerships and is getting increasing inquiry from car dealers across Auckland wanting suitable sites to start-up or expand their business.

A one hectare site at Wairau Rd has been bought by Sime Darby Motors for $9 million to build a new BMW showroom and yard and a 1.8ha former council site at Fred Thomas Dr, Takapuna has been bought for $12 million by Gulf Enterprises for another competing luxury European car dealership.

Sime Darby Motor Group (NZ) has earthworks resource consent and activity will begin soon on the Wairau Rd site. The company is part of a Malaysian-based diversified multinational and has an annual turnover of more than $550 million from 34 car yards throughout New Zealand.

Savills joint managing director Paddy Callesen says the properties were the last two big undeveloped, high profile sites in the North Shore's business precincts.

The Wairau Rd site, opposite Pak 'n Save, was originally bought from a private owner by the council under the Public Works Act for roading and the part not used was offered back to the original owner, who worked with a developer on options for the land.

When the Fred Thomas Dr site was being marketed there was so much interest from vehicle dealers wanting land, Savills agents began scouring the market for other high profile sites. "We asked the Wairau Rd property owner if he would consider purchase offers from car dealers as we had so much demand," says Callesen.

"Marketing commercial properties often throws up a few surprises. In this case the highest and best use for both sites was decided by the car industry, with two dealerships having the biggest brands topping the offers made."

New Zealand's luxury car sales are accelerating. Last year motorists with deep pockets drove more than 6000 new top-end cars away from dealerships. Last month 346 Mercedes Benz cars, 342 BMWs and 298 Audis were bought across the country. Some dealers say they are only limited by supply.

Car sales have gathered pace since New Zealand came out of the global financial crisis in 2013 and some dealers say they are only limited by supply.

Mr Jefferson says the new car sales are a sign the economy is strengthening. "They are usually the first thing to go when people fear the economy is taking a dip."

He says the car industry is streets ahead of traditional developers in buying land. "They don't have to make their purchase stack up as a property deal; they have bought to accelerate their business."

He says Savills is seeing it across the entire vehicle industry and particularly sought after areas are Otahuhu, Penrose, Onehunga and even further south. "We have seen a flood of car importers selling from non-traditional areas. Dealers with lesser quality cars are considering property in outlying areas where land is cheaper."

More than 118,000 imported cars were off-loaded at Ports of Auckland's wharves in the first half of this financial year, up from 100,000 during the same period last year. Ports of Auckland says this aspect of its business is only going to grow as the population increases. Most of the country's used cars come through Auckland.

According to Statistics New Zealand the relative importance of spending on second-hand cars is twice that of new motor vehicles cars in the Consumer Price Index. This means about $2 of every $100 spent by households on goods and services is spent on buying used cars while $1 is spent on buying new cars.

Car buyers are purchasing medium-sized cars. Between June 2007 and June 2013 about 50% of car sales were for medium sized vehicles, followed by small cars at just over 25% and large cars at less than 25%.

Mr Callesen says the car industry is just catching-up on delayed development after years of inactivity during the global financial crisis. "During that time the sector also changed and many people are looking at vehicles online and then visited a car yard to check them out before buying."

A McKinsey's report on innovating automotive retail says across the globe car retailing is undergoing substantial change and challenging car dealers' business models. Around the world the number of new car dealers is dropping driven by mobile technologies and social media.

Many brands are adapting and starting to upgrade their retail premises by piloting new formats, such as online and boutique-style stores. Mercedes-Benz has the Visionary Store and online connect me stores while BMW has an online customer interaction centre.

McKinsey says the good news is that customers still rely on the dealers as they want to test-drive a vehicle before buying and vehicle servicing is still an "off-line" necessity. "Vehicle yards and dealerships will remain a touch point in a customers' buying decisions, despite the proliferation of online searching and social media."

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