High-end Hawke’s Bay properties, for a long time limited to out-of-towners with their Auckland or Wellington property dollars, are now heading back into local hands.
“There’s good money in the local economy, so we’ve got local people taking advantage of the low interest rates,” says James Macpherson, Bayleys principal for Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa.
“There are more buyers than vendors, with cashed-up farmers coming into town to live. There’s work across the spectrum, not just agriculture, so we do have buyers selling up in Wellington and moving here for more vitamin D in their lives, plus some Aucklanders.”
Macpherson says sales over $3 million are more common than they were in past years, with two alone in March this year.
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The Stevens Lawson-designed house had three-bedrooms spread over 2023sqm of land in a country estate with pool, golf course and tennis court. Photo / Supplied
Mid-$3m was not a common number, but now people aren’t shocked at the price, he says. The reality is that there’s not a lot of property between $2.5m to $4m.
“Such is the demand that we’ve got builders doing spec homes for over $3m, not just the $1-2m range.”
He says that finding land to build on is hard in the cities now, pointing to three sections in a new subdivision at Haumoana, a seaside village midway between Hastings and Napier that sold at auction today for $570,000 to $702,500. He estimates that had they been on the market a year ago, they would have gone for more like $500,000.
Data from OneRoof’s partner Valocity shows that Havelock North is one of the six fastest-growing suburbs in Hawke’s Bay, with the median value now just over $1m. At $1.01m, that's a whopping 43 per cent up on last year.
An art deco house at 9 Franklin Terrace, Havelock North, sold at auction for $2.1 m. Photo/Supplied
That’s helped by two properties in Havelock North, the region’s most upmarket village, that sold for over $4 million this summer.
The year’s record of $4.45m was set in February for an award-winning architect-designed house on Black Barn Rd that had an offer only 10 days after it went on the market.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International agent Michael Lock, who marketed the sprawling 550sq m property, said it had just three bedrooms, but a courtyard and a room for the owner’s model cars, and access to the estate’s shared vineyard, golf course, tennis court and pavilion made it highly desirable.
“The house won awards in 2010 for architects Stevens Lawson. We were inviting buyers from $4m and there were plenty of buyers in that price bracket. The buyer was from Wellington, but we had quite a few locals looking too.”
In January, a classic 1930s house sold for $2.17m on Franklin Terrace, Havelock North. Photo / Supplied
Lock says that stock of houses at that price bracket is so limited that demand has turned to land in prestige blocks instead. He recently sold a 5408sq m plot at Matarua Rise, a farm park development on the Tukituki river 10 minutes out of Havelock North for $1.675m. It last changed hands four years ago for just $940,000.
“It will be a two-to-three-year project, but they’ll get exactly what they want.”
In March, Bayleys agent Gretchen Paape sold a classic renovated 1908 house on Busby Hill, one of Havelock North’s most desirable roads, for $4.3m. The 550sq m house has six bedrooms, four-car garaging, a guest wing and pool – all with panoramic views of Te Mata Peak.
Earlier this month, she sold a six-bedroom art deco house on 2770sq m of grounds in Havelock North’s Franklin Terrace under the hammer for $2.1m, $300,000 above its rating valuation. A neighbouring 361sq m three-bedroom 1930s house on 7411sq m on the same street went for $2.175m in January.
“While they sold to a Hawke’s Bay-based international client, all the other bidders were locals. And we’re finding it’s now about 80 per cent locals across all our properties, that’s up from 72 per cent. And a lot more buyers from Wellington, rather than Auckland.”
An immaculately renovated four-bedroomh house on 1472 sqm land at 84 McHardy Street, Havelock North, sold under the hammer for $2.175m. Photo / Supplied
A Havelock North property Paape marketed at 84 McHardy St had 13 bidders at the same mid-May auction, who pushed the price to $2.175m, more than double its 2019 rating valuation of $1.02m. The smartly presented four-bedroom 1950s house had an outdoor fireplace, swimming pool and spa pool on a generous 1472sq m section.
“We’ve seen this for quite a while now, lots of bidders pushing it up. It was happening before Covid. Maybe there’s not the urgency that there was before as it’s getting cooler, and people are taking their time.”
A grand estate on 5538 sqm on Busby Hill, Havelock North, sold for $4.3 m. Photo / Supplied
Bayleys agents Andrew Rochester and Catherine Rochester marketed a picturesque four-bedroom bungalow at 631 Nelson St North, Hastings that sold under the hammer today for $1.24m. He says that the interest in the property was not unusual: 35 to 40 groups through open homes and two or three bidders.
“The local buyers’ budgets are pretty good. Such is the increase in their property values that where they’d look at $1.2m houses a year ago, now they’re spending up to $1.65m.
“Recently a builder sold a spec home for $3.4m, that was to a local. Prices are still holding.”
Paape says that properties that pass in at auction are quickly sold – one within 30 minutes, another the next day – and that there are plenty more buyers with budgets around the $1.5m to $2m than a year ago.
