Millbrook Resort Queenstown

What is Millbrook Resort?

Millbrook is a five-star lifestyle and golf resort set within 650 acres of parkland in the Wakatipu Basin, framed by the Crown Range and The Remarkables. It’s home to two championship 18-hole courses (36 holes) and hosts the New Zealand Open, with a resort village, spa and dining woven through fairways, ponds and mature trees.

Location

Positioned just outside Arrowtown, Millbrook is roughly 4 km from Arrowtown, around 15 minutes from Queenstown Airport, and about 20–25 minutes from central Queenstown. Complimentary shuttles run for guests between the resort, Arrowtown and Queenstown, and public transport links are also available.

Neighbourhood & Masterplan

Millbrook has evolved into a fully masterplanned environment with 36 holes of golf, accommodation, wellness, and village amenities supported by robust infrastructure (roads, water, wastewater and stormwater). The resort’s layout balances open space, water features and tree belts with residential enclaves to maintain a calm, park-like character.

Design Framework

Development sits within the Millbrook Resort Zone (MRZ) of the Queenstown Lakes District Plan—a bespoke planning framework that enables recreation, residential and visitor accommodation while protecting landscape quality and amenity. Millbrook also operates Design Guidelines and a Design Review Panel approval process to ensure cohesive, high-quality outcomes. Early alignment with these controls streamlines consenting and protects long-term value.

Millbrook Resort Queenstown

What we love about Millbrook

Millbrook pairs quiet luxury with daily convenience: fairway and pond-edge homesites, long mountain views, walking and cycling connections, five dining venues, and a renowned spa. This is all in a landscape-led setting that rewards timeless, context-sensitive architecture. For clients, it delivers a complete lifestyle; for us, it’s a framework where careful form, proportion and materiality genuinely matter.

Occasionally new sites are released in Millbrook, when choosing, prioritise northerly aspects to capture winter warmth and consistent daylight. Fairway, pond-edge and mountain-view sites each offer distinct outlooks, so we balance views with privacy using planting berms, courtyard planning and precise window placement. With generally gentle landforms, subtle level changes can choreograph entries, garaging and outdoor rooms without visual clutter. From the outset, we map the MRZ rules and Millbrook Design Guidelines against your brief to de-risk approvals and preserve the design intent.

How Nala Studio Architects can help at Millbrook?

New Luxury Homes at Millbrook (from concept to completion) - We craft contemporary alpine homes that sit lightly in the land. This includes warm, energy-efficient interiors, enduring materials (timber, stone, metal), and finely resolved detailing. We coordinate early with the Design Review Panel and QLDC to align massing, palette and landscape with the resort’s character, keeping approvals smooth and predictable.

Millbrook Renovations & Extensions (working within the Guidelines) - Already own at Millbrook? We design sensitive additions for new suites, pavilion-style living wings, re-planned kitchens and spas, so your home reads as one coherent composition. Our process addresses height, setbacks, colours and landscaping to satisfy the Design Guidelines while upgrading performance and liveability.

Site-Finding & Due Diligence - Although Millbrook is a mature luxury resort, occasionally new sites come to the market. Before you buy, we evaluate shortlist sites for sun, views, privacy, access, neighbour context and services. We overlay the MRZ controls and Design Guidelines to identify opportunities and constraints, outline cost/benefit trade-offs, and produce quick massing studies so you can purchase with confidence.

Consenting & Approvals - We handle the architectural submission to Millbrook’s review process and manage resource/building consent documentation with QLDC, translating resort standards into clear drawings, specifications and landscape plans that expedite approvals. We work with overseas buyers (foreign buyers) as their local architect to manage the full process from site selection, concept design right through the building of your dream home. 

Sustainability & Performance - Passive-solar planning, high-performance envelopes, low-energy services and durable finishes are standard in our work—quietly integrated to suit Millbrook’s refined aesthetic and alpine climate. Nala Studio Architects is Passive Home Certified as well as Home Star Rated. 

Interior, Landscape & Delivery - From interior architecture and lighting to planting palettes and outdoor rooms, we coordinate the full consultant team (structural, services, landscape). Our construction-phase services keep design intent intact through to handover.

Opportunity

For discerning clients, Millbrook offers a unique canvas: big-sky views, sculpted parklands, and a planning framework that rewards quality. Whether you’re designing a new residence, renovating or extending an existing home, or choosing the right site, Nala Studio Architects will lead you from feasibility to keys-in-hand—delivering a bespoke home that belongs to Millbrook and belongs to you.

Thinking about a specific site or home? Share a lot plan or photos and we’ll sketch a tailored strategy for sun, views, privacy and approvals.