Kōroto, Lake Hāwea

For Kōroto, a lakeside development at Lake Hāwea in Otago, Render Works delivered the full toolkit: aerial masterplan renders, exterior and interior renders of the homes, a long-form cinematic walkthrough video, and a bespoke project website now live at koroto-lake-hawea.vercel.app. One studio handled all of it, so the renders, the video, and the site share a single look.

What did Render Works deliver for Kōroto?

Render Works delivered four connected pieces of work for Kōroto, listed below. We visualised the homes and the wider site, including the masterplan, the boat house, and the clubhouse, so buyers could see the whole development before anything was built.

Deliverable	What it involved
Aerial masterplan renders	Drone-height views of the full site, showing how each lot sits against the lake and the rest of the development, plus the boat house and clubhouse in context.
Home renders	Photorealistic exterior and interior stills of the homes at Kōroto, built to read as finished homes before construction is complete.
Cinematic walkthrough video	A long-form cinematic walkthrough that moves through the site and the homes, carrying the same look as the stills.
Bespoke website	The live project website at koroto-lake-hawea.vercel.app, built around the same render set as lead imagery.

The point of grouping them is consistency. When one studio handles the renders, the video, and the website, the three are made to agree with each other instead of being stitched together later. That is the argument for a full marketing partner, which we cover in our guide to the full property development marketing toolkit.

A look at the renders

Here is a selection from the set, the same images that anchor the video and lead the website.

How do the aerial renders show each home's view of the lake?

The aerial renders were staged so each lot reads as having its own view of the water, which is the single hardest thing to convey from ground level. A buyer standing on an empty lot cannot see how their home will sit against the lake or against the rest of the site. The drone-height shots solve that.

By visualising Kōroto from above, the aerial renders make the layout and the lake setting clear before anything is built. Each home is shown in its position on the site, with its outlook to the water, so a buyer can understand exactly what they are buying. The same views also place the boat house and the clubhouse in context, so the wider development reads as one place rather than a list of separate amenities.

That is work the ground-level stills cannot do on their own. The exterior and interior renders sell the feel of an individual home, while the aerial masterplan renders sell the setting and the layout. Together they answer the two questions a lakeside buyer asks first: what does my home look like, and what does it look out on?

How does the cinematic walkthrough video work with the renders?

The cinematic walkthrough video moves through Kōroto using the same look as the stills, so the development feels like one place across every format. A still shows a single moment; the video carries a buyer through the site and the homes in sequence, from the wider setting down into the rooms.

Because the same studio built both, the video and the renders match. The materials, the light, and the lake setting are consistent whether a buyer is looking at a still on the website or watching the cinematic walkthrough video. You can see the full walkthrough on the Kōroto video page. Motion is what a lakeside site needs most, since the relationship between a home and the water is easier to feel when the camera moves through it.

How was the website built around the renders?

The Kōroto website was built around the same render set, so the imagery a buyer sees on the site is the imagery they have already seen in the video and everywhere else. There is no mismatch and no second-guessing whether the home online is the same one in the walkthrough.

A bespoke site, rather than a generic template, lets the project sit properly: the aerial renders lead the masterplan view, the exterior and interior stills carry the homes, and the cinematic walkthrough embeds in the same place. Everything traces back to one render set, so updating the project later is simpler. New imagery flows into the same site without a rebuild. You can see how we approach this in our development website builds.

Why does a quality marketing toolkit matter for an Otago development?

Otago is one of New Zealand's high-growth regions, which raises the stakes for how clearly a lakeside development presents itself. Stats NZ reported that Queenstown-Lakes district, the wider Otago area around Lake Hāwea, was one of the country's fast-growing districts in the year ended 30 June 2025 (Stats NZ, 2025). More people arriving means more developments competing for their attention.

In that market, buyers often commit off-plan, before the homes exist. The renders, the video, and the website are frequently the only version of Kōroto a buyer can see when they decide. For a lakeside site where the view is most of the value, getting those assets to show each home's relationship to the water is most of what the buyer is judging.

Render Works' work on Kōroto is delivered as a cohesive set of assets: aerial and home renders, a cinematic walkthrough, and a live website tied together by a single look. We are not claiming a sales result. The honest description of the outcome is a consistent set of assets that makes the layout and the lake setting clear, not a number.

Frequently asked questions

What did Render Works deliver for Kōroto at Lake Hāwea?

Four things: aerial masterplan renders of the full site, photorealistic exterior and interior renders of the homes, a long-form cinematic walkthrough video, and the bespoke project website at koroto-lake-hawea.vercel.app. Render Works visualised the homes and the wider site, including the masterplan, the boat house, and the clubhouse.

How do the aerial renders show each home's view of the lake?

The drone-height shots were staged so each lot reads as having its own view of the water. They show how each home sits against the lake and the rest of the site, which is hard to convey from ground level, so the layout and the lake setting are clear to buyers before anything is built.

Where is Kōroto?

Kōroto is a lakeside residential development at Lake Hāwea, in the Otago region of New Zealand. The aerial renders place each home against the lake and show the wider site, including the boat house and the clubhouse.

Can one studio do renders, video, and a website?

Yes. Render Works produced all of it for Kōroto: the aerial and home renders, the cinematic walkthrough video, and the bespoke project website. The advantage of one studio is consistency. The renders set the look, and the video and site are built around them, so the assets match instead of drifting apart.

Why is a cinematic walkthrough video useful for a lakeside development?

Because the relationship between a home and the water is easier to feel when the camera moves through the site. A still shows one moment, while the walkthrough carries a buyer through Kōroto in sequence, from the wider lake setting down into the homes, using the same look as the renders.