The street formerly known as the steepest in the world, Dunedin’s Baldwin Street in the North East Valley, has been pipped by a town in Wales.
But while the street may have fallen down the records, booming real estate prices may help salve the blow.
Local real estate agents say that it won’t affect property prices in the busy tourist spot, which has held the title since 1987.
“If anything, being so busy put some people off buying,” says Donald Muldrew of Cutlers Ltd. The agency head, who’s been in the business 28 years, says that if anything the market will go up.
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“The whole Dunedin market is rising, and this is a street of owner-occupiers, prices are just getting higher. A house at number 8 just sold for over $435,000 and the median is getting up to $427,000. A couple of beautiful homes at the top of the street would easily be worth $500,000 plus.”
35 Baldwin Street sold for $400,000 at the start of the year.
Guinness World Records awarded Ffordd Pen Llech in steep town of Harlech, North Wales for it’s gradient of 1:2.67 (for every one 1 metre travelled up or down you travel 2.67m travelled horizontally), after a year’s campaigning by a local man. Baldwin St’s ratio is 1:2.86.
Cutler’s Muldrew says that there is huge demand for property in the city, but a tiny supply: only 189 properties on the market this year, compared to 800 or 900 a year and a half ago. A recent affordable house – in Dunedin that really is affordable, at $350,000 - had over 80 people at two open homes and 12 bidders at auction.
“It went for $370,000 and it needed everything doing to it. Everything,” he says. “A house just around the corner from Baldwin St, on North Rd, in completely original condition went for $392,000.”
Baldwin St’s suburb, North East Valley, has a median property value is $360,000, up 11 percent in the 12 months, and 31 percent in the last three years. It's far from the region's most expensive suburb - that's Blackhead, just outside the city, where the median value is $830,000 - but it sits below the city's median value of $415,000.
Ray White agent Leona Munro, who is selling a huge church property in the same neighbourhood, says that Baldwin St has a very appealing community to buyers.
“It’s very loyal community, they line up for their local café, even when it’s been a tourist thing,” she says. “There’s so much growth in Dunedin that I don’t think it will affect prices. The new build at the hospital is driving a lot of growth, as well as first home buyers.”
At the other side of the world, houses on Ffordd Pen Llech and Harlech in general sell for less than those on Baldwin St. There the average sale price is £178,814 - NZ$332,250, according the UK property site Zoopla. Zoopla says the average value for houses in the Welsh town have increased 1.86 percent in the last 12 months. Experts in the UK say UK house prices could tumble if there is a no-deal Brexit, while Dunedin has one of the strongest metro housing markets.
The reverse is true in Dunedin.
“There’s just a good influx of people coming into Dunedin, every week from out of town, Auckland or Christchurch,” Muldrew says. He adds that that is putting pressure on first home buyers, as they get priced out of properties by buyers further up the ladder with more cash. Now listings are not keeping up with demand, with only a couple of properties coming on to the market for every five or ten sold.
