Revealed: Hamilton’s most expensive streets

New research from OneRoof has identified the Hamilton streets with the most expensive houses.

One is home to more than half-a-billion dollars’ worth of property and to some of the city’s top sales.

The overall average property value in Hamilton is close to crossing the $1 million mark, after an unusual growth spurt fuelled by low interest rates and buyer demand for property in the city.

A lot of that growth has been in the city’s most expensive suburbs, with prices in Rototuna North and Flagstaff jumping $300,000 in the last 12 months.

OneRoof analysis shows there are three streets in Hamilton where houses have an average 2018 RV of more than $1m. Roy Hilton Drive, in Flagstaff, is top of the table; its 73 houses have an average RV of $1.319m. It is closely followed by Lake Crescent, in Hamilton Lake, which has an average RV of $1.011m, and Awatere Avenue, in Beerescourt, where the houses have an average RV of $1.008m.

The figures also point out Hamilton’s most valuable streets.

The total value of the 641 residential properties on River Road, in Flagstaff, is a whopping $539m, a high point for Hamilton but well shy of the total for Remuera Road in Auckland, the country’s most expensive address for real estate where the total value of properties stretches to $2 billion.

The Hamilton street with the next highest total RV is Peachgrove Road, in Hamilton East. It has a combined RV of $161m from 318 properties. Third is Lake Crescent, which has a total RV of $158m from 158 properties.

The streets identified by OneRoof were also home to the city’s biggest real estate deal s last year.

Lake Crescent accounted for two of the city’s top five sales in 2021: a sprawling four-bedroom house which sold for $2.8m and is now back on the market, and a four-bedroom Italian-style house which fetched $2.7m. A luxury five-bedroom near-new home on Roy Hilton Drive was the city’s fifth biggest sale of 2021, selling for $2.23m.

Hamilton’s top sale last year, $4.1m for a modern four-bedroom home, was on Opoia Road, just off of River Road.

Record-breaking homes rarely on the market

Lodge Real Estate’s Glenn Collins, who with Sonia Christison brokered three of last year’s top five sales, said that prices have crept up across the city.

“A property selling for north of $3m is an outlier, but that’s just a snapshot today. Over the year, $1.5m properties have become $2m, $2m properties have become $2.5m,” he said.

“There are properties around the lake and river which if available would sell for $3m. But they’ve been built specially or people have been living there for a while, so they’re only on the market if people are moving on.”

Collins estimated a $2m property in Hamilton would compare favourably to a $5m one in Auckland, but only a handful of buyers in the city had that level of budget.

“The air’s a bit thinner. But there are a lot of passive buyers, people who if a certain property pops up will go ‘I’ve always wanted to live there’ and go for it.

“That happens with streets like Awatere or St Andrews Terrace near the golf course, or Beerescourt, River Road, Lake Terrace.”

133 Lake Crescent is back on the market after selling last year for $2.8m. Photo / Supplied

The price surge in the city has made the 2018 RVs largely redundant, he said. “They’re just not relevant.”

Collins and Christison, who are marketing 133 Lake Crescent, which sold last year for $2.8m, said there are not a lot of properties flipping at this price point, although some spec builds may fetch over $2m.

The buyers are there

Lugtons agent Jack Ramasamy, who brokered the $3.65m deal for last year’s second most expensive home, a five-bedroom 60s-style home on River Road, said that everyone was astonished at the amount of interest in the property, and the price it went for.

“We’d thought it would get to the high-$2ms. But there were 30 or 40 people looking, and we got six offers, all over $3m. Some were cash unconditional,” he said.

“It was a pretty special property, but I sold another on 1000sqm on River Road for $2m and we had a property on Lake Road, in Horsham Downs, asking $2.075m. We also had a buyer for a fully refurbished house on Lake Crescent that went for $2.7m.”

This swinging 60-style home on River Road fetched $3.65m last year. Photo / Supplied

Lodge Real Estate agent Mike Thomas, who marketed the $2.7m Lake Crescent property, said buyers in some streets around River Road, such as Pollock Drive, Chartwell, would pay big money to bowl a house and build new.

“For a quarter acre section, to demolish and rebuild, people could pay $1.5m. People recognise the good streets and if you’ve got the listings, they’ve done their homework,” he said.

“For streets like Awatere, on the river, people look at $2.2m for a finished place or spend $1.6m to $2m and then spend another $1m on a reno. That street will always go up. It’s on the river walk.”

This Italian-style home on Lake Crescent sold for $2.7m. Photo / Supplied

He added: “We’ve got buyers with $2m to $3m and not enough stock to meet that need in the city.”

A city on the up

Basil Lennan, branch manager of Lodge Real Estate, said $2m sales in Hamilton were not unusual now – a far cry from only five years ago when $1m sales were significant.

“If you look at what’s happening in Hamilton, it’s one of the most desirable cities in the country for real estate. There's lots of new infrastructure, there’s lots of new businesses moving here. In 10 years' time the inland port will employ 10,000 people.

This house on Opoia Road fetched more than $4m last year. Photo / Supplied

“Buyers with money prefer either the newer suburbs of Flagstaff or Northern Rototuna, but there are people who only want the established areas like Awatere or Lake Crescent.”

Bayleys Hamilton agent Aaron Paterson the top end of the market was strong. “It’s been a very good year at the top end. People are still spending over $2m.”

Paterson recently sold a stylish four-bedroom home on River Road for $2.15m - $600,000 more than what it sold for 15 months earlier - and another River Road home for $1.9m.

“Both of these were super-popular. $2m is not uncommon now, I’ve had five bidders for $2m properties,” he said.

“These are local buyers, not overseas or expats and only the odd enquiry from Auckland.”