More Kiwi homes have joined the million-dollar-plus club, with new figures showing an annual lift in the number of properties selling for $1 million or more.
Nationwide, there were 10,615 $1 million-dollar-plus sales in 2018, up 4.5 percent on 2017 but still short of 2016's total, when 11,648 $1 million-plus properties were sold.
According to sales figures released by REINZ, 13 out of 15 regions saw year-on-year increases in number of properties selling for $1 million-plus, with Southland remaining steady, and Auckland the only region to record a decrease.
The region with the largest year-on-year increase was Marlborough, which saw an increase of 90.9 percent - from 11 properties sold for $1 million-dollars or more in 2017 to 21 in 2018.
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Hawke's Bay saw a 25 percent lift in $1 million-plus sales (from 54 in 2017 to 68 in 2018) and Gisborne an surprising 50 percent increase, although as with Marlborough, the lift came off a very low base (from four to six).
Other strong performers were:
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said: “All regions except Auckland and Southland reached record numbers of properties sold for $1 million or more in 2018."
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said the surges in Hawke's Bay and Northland showed the regions were catching up with the likes of Tauranga and Hamilton in terms of value growth and demand.
"Hawke's Bay and Northland have become a destination for buyers priced out of more expensive markets and looking for an easy lifestyle," he said.
Canterbury was one of two regions with an annual rise in the number of properties sold for $3 million-plus in 2018, increasing 140.0 percent (from five in 2017 to 12). Wellington was the only other region with an increase, going from five to six properties.
Wellington was also the only region to see an increase in the number of properties sold in excess of $5 million (from none in 2017 to one in 2018), with all other regions remaining on par with 2017 numbers or decreasing in volume.
“Across the country, 71 properties were sold in the $5 million-plus category – 63 in Auckland (compared to 76 in 2017), 5 in Otago (compared to 6 in 2017) 1 in Bay of Plenty (the same as in 2017), 1 in Canterbury (also remaining the same) and 1 in Wellington (up from 0 in 2017),” Norwell says.
REINZ figures showed a 1.6 percent drop in the number of million-dollar properties sold in Auckland during 2018 (down from 8014 in 2017 to 7,888). This was the lowest number of million-dollar-plus properties sold in Auckland for four years.
Norwell said: “Volumes of million-dollar plus sales were up year-on-year by 4.5 percent across the country. This figure has been pulled down by the ‘Auckland impact’.
"If you remove Auckland from the picture, then the number of million-dollar plus properties actually significantly increased 26.9 percent, which has been largely driven by the regional growth the country has been experiencing."
