As Auckland’s boundary pushes north so too are Aucklanders, with real estate sales strengthening across the Hibiscus Coast.
Like most of the country, the coast has seen a recent flurry of buying activity: homes brought to market since the end of the first lockdown are selling fast and for good prices.
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According to OneRoof-Valocity's house price index, Rodney property values have risen 5.6 percent since the end of March and the start of the Covid crisis. The current median value is $970,000, $40,000 up on October 2019.
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Nick Langdon, managing director of Harcourts Tandem Realty, says, based on the company’s sales data, Rodney’s median price is tracking well above CV. “In August, our median capital value was $770,000 and our median sale price was $1.05 million,” says Langdon.
“We came into March predicting this was going to be a good year, and then we came into Covid. If I had to make a prediction when we were in lockdown, I would have got it 100 per cent wrong to where we actually are.
“I guess you always plan for the worst and hope for the best, and that’s probably what’s happened. Stock levels were reasonably low and borrowing money was really cheap and that stabilised the market really quickly.”
Langdon says lifestyle and affordability are the main motivating factors for buyers’ drift north to the region, with improved commute times to Auckland also behind the lift in activity and inquiry.
“The closer you move towards the city the prices just go up. If you picked a home that sits in Campbells Bay and put it in the coast, it’s a significantly lower-price.”
Langdon’s markets are diverse, from retirees in Orewa to first home buyers in Stanmore Bay, with lifestylers eyeing up Snells Beach and Silverdale.
Surfing at Tawharanui. The beach is one of Rodney’s star attractions. Photo / Getty Images
“As an area opens up and the accessibility to work, be it on the coast, the North Shore, or in Auckland, it’s better to be in front of the queue.”
Langdon says while there is some expat and investor activity, buyers tend to be locals moving around upgrading and downgrading with many coming from the North Shore. “We don’t punch as high as the Shore price-wise but I believe it’s equally as nice,” he says.
Ryan Steven, from Bayleys on the Hibiscus Coast, agrees the Rodney market is booming, with the Whangaparaoa Peninsula a standout.
“I think over the past 10 years the Hibiscus Coast hasn’t really been affected negatively by some of the some of the tougher markets but the positive market that’s in front of us at the moment has further given it a lift,” he says.
“It’s definitely a very, very active marketplace. There’s somewhere in the realm of 3000 plots of land that are going to be made available within the next few years with the several different developments that are on the market.”
While Pacific Heights, on the hill in Orewa, has been a highly competitive seller, Gulf Harbour listings at the end of Whangaparaoa Peninsula have improved and Stanmore Bay has been very popular with first home buyers.
“When we’re seeing the rise in Orewa, Red beach, Millwater, these places that are really highly sought after, Whangaparaoa has been forgotten over the last couple of years and there hasn’t been massive increases in value but now the market’s realising, especially those first home buyers, that Whangaparaoa is a much more affordable place to purchase,” Steven says.
“You’re within the same sort of proximity of Orewa and the facilities and amenities that come with being close to Orewa but you’ve got your beaches very close by and you’ve got the potential for capital growth with the Penlink.
“I think first home buyers are saying ‘we might not have last year taken that dive into a property in Whangaparaoa, even though it’s more affordable housing, because the drive down that road is just too much for us and we’re not willing to commit, but now there’s the Penlink and a bit more of a solid plan on when that’s happening and people are saying that’s enough for us to commit to purchasing in this area.”
The coast was made part of the supercity because of the potential for development, which may attract some industrial buildings and allow head offices to base themselves there, in turn creating jobs and attracting more people, he says.
Most people buying currently are either already from the coast or from wider Auckland, and especially the North Shore.
“What I’m finding anecdotally is we’ve got buyers if they were 10 or 20 years ago living in the bays when it had very much a coastal lifestyle feel about it but now they’re feeling so wedged in and much more corporate so to retain that coastal lifestyle people are moving to the Hibiscus Coast.”
The recent sale of a four-bedroom family home in 1 Arriere Lane in Millwater is a case in point where there were crowded open homes with people from Auckland City and the North Shore, leading to multiple bidders at auction and a sale of $1.77 million - $445,000 above the $1.325 million CV.
“That highlights that move, that migration north, to Hibiscus Coast. The activity on that one was sensational. It was a really amazing result and the vendors were just totally blown away by the number of people that came through.”
