NZ loses its one and only billion-dollar suburb

It’s official. Remuera is no longer New Zealand’s billion dollar suburb.

The total value of sales in the prestige Auckland suburb dropped from $1.04 billion in 2017 to $781 million in 2018, according to research from OneRoof and its data partner Valocity.

Fewer house sales are behind the drop, with the median value of properties in Remuera holding steady in the last 12 months, at $1.76 million.

Last year, 362 properties sold in the suburb, down from 451 in 2017 and 662 in 2015.

Remuera, which achieved six of the top ten sales prices last year - including a mansion on the main road that went for $25.5 million, first cracked the billion dollar ceiling in 2015, when it registered $1.265 billion in sales, and remains the only New Zealand suburb to have done so.

Remuera sales are not far off those of Australia’s top suburb: Mosman. In that city’s lower north shore suburb, just 300 houses sold for just over A$1.031 billon. The total was helped by 20 homes selling for over A$10 million, including one for a suburb record of A$25 million. A similar number of apartments sold for A$425 million, bringing the suburb’s total to A$1.456 billion.

Aussie agents reckon the suburb gives better bang for the house buck than next suburb Vaucluse (total sales AU$590 million). In Melbourne Brighton was the top suburb, with total sales of AU4829 million.

But Remuera remains streets ahead of any other part of the country. Next for sales value is Auckland central, at just under $632,700,000 - but that’s off the back of 1166 sales, mostly apartments with a median value of only $458,000.

Booming sales volumes in Flatbush and Manurewa, off the back of new suburb growth in Flatbush and low prices in Manurewa ($629,000) pushed sales values to $$443 million and $430 million, still well off their 2015 records where each shot to around $800 million in sales.

More surprising were the tonier suburbs. Epsom sold about half the value as Remuera ($426 million on 220 sales) while Herne Bay, where median values are still hovering around $2.4 million, totalled $211 million albeit from a mere 70 sales.

Around the rest of the country, Papamoa reached $387 million off 543 sales, again, well down on its 2016 peak of just under $750 million. And in the rest of the country, Rolleston in Christchurch was the only suburb to break $300 million (on 561 sales), again, well down on its 2016 peak of just under $500 million.