This year’s Block NZ houses will almost certainly break show records, when they go to auction, but by how much?
The four properties the teams are sprinting to finish are one of New Zealand’s hottest suburb’s for real estate.
The median property value in Auckland’s Pt Chev has jumped almost half a million dollars in the last 12 months to just over $2 million.
Last week, a Pt Chev house that grabbed second place in the 2014 of The Block NZ sold for $3.18m, while a two-bedroom brick and tile home on a 838sqm section in the suburb was picked up by a developer at the weekend for $4.29m.
Start your property search
And two new-build townhouses sold for $2m-plus, indicating the strength of demand for modern quality homes in the suburb.
Pt Chev real estate agent Ross Brader, whose agency The Professionals made the above two sales, said: “I’ve been working in this area since 1994 and have truly never had so many buyers looking. If I could pull 30 listings out of a hat tomorrow, they would all be sold within three weeks!”
The Professionals agent noted that a brand new three-bedroom home on Wright Road that’s similar in size to the 2021 Block homes sold in June for more than $3m.
A new-build home on Wright Road, in Pt Chev, Auckland, recently sold for more than $3m. Photo / Supplied
“Our figures show the average sale price in pt Chev is 44% above CV, which translates to an average of $662,000 extra for every one of the estimated 81 properties sold here in first six months of the year,” he said.
Tim Hawes, principal of Ray White’s Kingland office, which covers Pt Chev, told OneRoof that buyers in Auckland’s desirable inner west no longer expected single houses on quarter acres sections.
"It's more about the architecture and design. Sure, the finishes might change between an $800,000 and a $2m house. To buyers who really care, the quality of design and build are worth more."
Hawes said that all sorts of buyers, from downsizers to first timers to families with kids, were happy to live without the big back lawn in order to get closer to the city, and have access to amenities and good schools.
According to Gareth Kiernan, chief forecaster for economic analysts Informetrics, there’s generally “a strong correlation between house price growth in Auckland and the average profits made” on The Block.
A two-bed house on Pt Chevalier Road, sold at the weekend for $4.29m. Photo / Supplied
He predicted that an average reserve price of $1.7m for each of this year’s houses could potentially result in the teams making a profit of almost $245,000 each.
Since the reality show made its debut in 2021, no Block NZ house has cracked the $2m mark. The highest price paid so far for one of the homes is $1.61m, a record set in 2016, during the last market peak.
However, the sale of the 2021 Block houses comes as the wider Auckland housing market showed the first signs of a slowdown. The latest OneRoof-Valocity figures show price growth in the city easing to 4.3% in the last three months.
Infometrics senior economist Brad Olsen doesn’t envisage any big changes in the market between now and auction night, but he disagrees that the market has softened. “Winter is always a relatively quiet time so when the figures are seasonally adjusted - in my view, it’s certainly not heaving like it used to be but it’s not really slowing either,” he said.
He said the elephant in the room was the Delta variant of Covid-19.
“We’re in a fairly worrying place where a case in the community could potentially set off another level four lockdown, but the economy, jobs and property market in New Zealand weathered last year’s one surprisingly well and if the level of spending that we’ve been seeing since is any indication, we would probably do so again, although things could possibly change if the lockdown was a very long one.”
Cheryl Crane, from Andre and Cheryl Realty, which sells in the Pt Chev area, said there had been some subtle changes in market dynamics over the last few weeks.
“There are slightly fewer people at open homes and fewer bidders at auctions but having said that the banks are making first home buyers really jump through hoops in order to get finance and I think that’s really holding a lot of people back,” she said.
