The sale of a brand-new house, one of several bought sight unseen, and a deal inked for over $8 million during lockdown are signs that Auckland property buyers are keen to head north, out of the city.
Mark Macky, whose Bayleys in the North patch stretches through 13 offices from Warkworth and Matakana to Paihia and Kerikeri, says that sight unseen sales to Auckland buyers were steady through lockdown.
“Some were owner-occupiers, some were investors. Then there were a lot who had seen the properties before lockdown but finished the deals during. They were for prices ranging all the way from $500,000 to one over $8m.
“We’ve almost sold out of stock. The vast majority, 90%, of auctions sold, all had multiple bidders.”
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While Macky cannot disclose any details of the $8m-plus sale in Auckland’s Rodney, he says another sale for a brand-new three-bedroom home on the edge of Mangawhai for $1.4m was a strong result for the area.
With very little new land for sale in Mangawhai, this section on Longview Street is asking for $575,000. Photo / Supplied
He says the beachside town, near the southern boundary of Northland about 90 minutes out of Auckland, is attracting strong interest from Aucklanders moving out of the city for a lifestyle change, as well as local buyers.
“Covid has proven that working remotely is achievable, people see they can commute a couple of days into the city and work from home the rest. It’s a global trend, all those lifestyle places an hour or two out of the big cities are much stronger.”
That is bringing problems of shortage of supply, he says, as his agents have fielded unprecedented levels of enquiry from buyers.
Right now, OneRoof shows 54 listings for the Mangawhai, Mangawhai Heads and Langs Beach area, with prices ranging from $575,000 for a section in town to $1.645m for a modern four-bedroom house on 6200sqm on the edge of the village. A luxury Tuscan-style four-bedroom estate on exclusive Cove Road, Langs Beach complete with barns, stables and an equestrian ring on a nearly two-hectare site is looking for around $5m.
Buyers will snap up brand-new homes because there are so few available, says Bayleys in the North owner Mark Macky. Photo / Supplied
Since level changes, new listings are starting to come in, Macky is not anticipating they’ll be double the normal spring levels to make up for the lost weeks of lockdown.
“We won’t be making up for our normal spring. So with the imbalance of supply we’ll see prices stay up and strong.”
For a few years the region around Mangawhai, Langs Cove and Waipu had a number of new developments come on stream with plenty of land for sale, but those have all gone now. He says buyers are having to wait for the 2022 launch of hundreds of new sections, terrace houses and a retirement village when the Mangawhai Central is ready.
He told OneRoof the sight-unseen lockdown sale of a brand-new house on Old Waipu Road is indicative of the shortage of new builds and new land.
“When buyers see a new build, they’ll take it or otherwise they’ll be waiting a while.”
Bayleys agent Laureen Hayes, who marketed the property with Letitia Partridge, says the property was listed the day of lockdown so buyers did not get to see it in person.
A luxury property at exclusive Langs Beach is on the market with a search price of just under $5m. Photo / Supplied
“We left the listing up and saw increased enquiry. This was uncharted territory for us. The auction was for October, but when we got an unconditional pre-auction offer, the vendors accepted that and brought the auction forward to September 15.”
Hayes says that many buyers weren’t in a position to go to auction, and the property sold for its offer to the first buyers.
“It was a rarity, a very nice new home in a popular lifestyle area we call The Loop. There’s so much demand and not enough land for new homes that residential sections will often sell before the title comes through," she says.
“All of us agents have at least half a dozen cashed-up buyers, people moving up here, but vendors need somewhere to go before they sell.”
While her vendors are very pleased with the sale price, Hayes did say their one regret was they missed seeing buyers “walk through their wonderful house, or see their faces in the excitement of an auction room.”
