A suburb on the northern fringes of Auckland has become New Zealand’s most expensive neighbourhood for property, snatching the crown from long-time title holder Herne Bay.
According to the latest OneRoof-Valocity house price figures, Coatesville’s average property value of $3.812 million is the country’s highest.
But agents and experts say Coatesville may not hold onto the title for long, claiming there are multi-million-dollar real estate deals in the works that could see Herne Bay reclaim its position.
As part of its research, OneRoof and its data partner Valocity analysed house prices in 849 suburbs with 20 or more settled sales in the last 12 months.
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House prices in Coatesville, which was once home to controversial internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, have grown 6% ($216,000) year-on-year, while prices 23km south in Herne Bay have tumbled $647,000 over the same period.
Coatesville was the only Auckland suburb to record value growth, which propelled it from number four on the list of expensive suburbs to number one within the space of 12 months.
Herne Bay, the first Kiwi suburb to cross the $1m house sale mark, has dropped to number two in the rankings, with an average property value of $3.58m.
The suburb of Waiheke Island has dropped from second-place to fourth, thanks to a decline of 15% ($577,000) in its average value property, while rural Whitford, on Auckland’s eastern fringes, remains in third place with an average property value of $3.42m. St Marys Bay, which neighbours Herne Bay, is still in fifth place, with an average property value of $2.908m.
Agents in Coatesville have noticed the suburb’s stellar run, telling OneRoof say they are even fielding enquiries from Herne Bay homeowners looking to make the switch from harbourside homes to lifestyle blocks and country mansions.
Coatesville is home to New Zealand’s second biggest residential real estate deal: the mansion once tenanted by Dotcom was bought by the Zuru toy billionaires Nick, Mat and Anna Mowbray for $32.5m in 2016.
James Wilson, Valocity’s head of valuations, says the shuffling of the order of high-end suburbs comes down to sales volume and also what type of property is selling, which can be different in different locations.
He says when it comes to Coatesville versus Herne Bay, properties at opposite ends of the value scale have been transacting over the last 12 months – in Coatesville, high-end properties have been selling while in Herne Bay more average value properties have been selling.
One of Coatesville’s big sales from last year was the $10m sale of a sprawling 601sq m mansion owned by City Impact Church founding pastors Peter and Beverley Mortlock, and another sale last year was a home in the same exclusive street – Screen Road – which fetched $8.3m.
Wilson, however, says it will only take a couple of big sales for Herne Bay to take back the most-expensive suburb title: “It's unlikely to represent a consistent changing of the guard, if you like, of that highest-value suburb.”
A five-bedroom home for sale by deadline private treaty at 79 Wake Road, in Coatesville, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
A luxury estate on 2.97ha on Glenmore Road, Coatesville, Auckland, recently sold for $6.4m. Photo / Supplied
He says Coatesville has such a range of properties it’s almost like multiple markets within one suburb and that makes for volatile value levels.
For the year to March, 2022, lower priced properties were selling but over the past 12 months that switched to high-end properties.
Wilson says big sales also add momentum to a suburb’s desirability and while Coatesville was sought-after prior to the attention garnered by the Dotcom mansion - the scene of a dramatic police raid in 2012 – the subsequent $32.5m sale to the Mowbrays could have fed into the mindset around the suburb’s popularity.
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“That mindset is not unique to high-value areas. It exists across the entire market but in particular those sort of aspirational and high-net worth suburbs like to see the super high value transactions because it sort of drives that wealth-effect factor.”
Ailsa McArthur, from Bayleys Coatesville, has several high-value listings on the market, including a “lavish” five-bedroom home with cottage on 1.7ha at 79 Wake Road, and she recently sold 134B Glenmore Road, a five-bedroom property on 2.97 ha, for $6.4m.
She says what has been different is the number of people who no longer need to be in the office five days a week who are looking for a lifestyle property in Coatesville, and those buyers include people from Herne Bay, Ponsonby and other central Auckland suburbs.
This five-bedroom home on 53 Lynton Masters Lane, Coatesville, is for sale by way of price by negotiation. Photo / Supplied
Waterfront Herne Bay is home to some of the country’s most expensive homes. Photo / Chris Tarpey
Before Covid, people did not have the ability to look at lifestyle options but now they do, and over the last six months the majority of buyers have been high-end.
She has also been amazed by the number of people aged 60-plus who are wanting more space now the children have left home and moved away.
“They don’t need to be near their kids because their kids are potentially been moving outside of the Auckland area so there's no desire to stay in the city anymore.
“A lot of them will say to me ‘look, we just want to be able to potter around the veggie garden, be self-sufficient.”
Eden Thomson from Ray White is selling a five-bedroom, four bathroom luxury home in Lynton Masters Lane he describes as like a “Queenstown lodge” and says there has been significant interest from people from Herne Bay, and especially Remuera.
People are looking for a lifestyle change, he says, and some who own “substantial” homes in those central suburbs are now looking for a country retreat.
Coatesville offers a lot of bang for people’s bucks, he says, with big pieces of land and big homes.
Thomson also says people being able to run a business from a lifestyle block is sending them house hunting in the country.
Ollie Wall says for anyone who leaves Herne Bay there’s always someone else ready to take their spot and he thinks Herne Bay won’t have to wait long before it’s back at number one.
There simply haven’t been many big sales in Herne Bay over the last nine months because well-heeled people who live in well-established, wealthy neighbourhoods don’t think it’s a good time to sell, he says.
Where usually there would be three or four high quality homes sold in Herne Bay every month, at the moment there is hardly one a month.
Wall says his company sold the most expensive house in Herne Bay last year, a luxury home on Marine Parade, for nearly $21m, and he points out an expensive house in Herne Bay is well beyond that of an expensive house in most other suburbs.
“We have three or four properties, two in Remuera and one in Herne Bay, which are likely to sway the stats back in these suburbs’ direction in the coming months.”
- Click here to find properties for sale in Coatesville and Herne Bay
