Revealed: New Zealand’s most popular suburbs of 2023

House hunters in 2023 have been looking for bargains – even in the country’s most expensive suburbs.

New research from OneRoof shows eight of the 10 most searched suburbs this year are in Auckland, including two of the most prized for school parents, double grammar zoned Remuera and Mount Eden.

The two non-Auckland suburbs to feature on the list are Papamoa, in Tauranga, and Waipa, in Cambridge, both high-value neighbourhoods.

In Auckland, the most-searched suburb on OneRoof in the first five months of the year was Auckland Central, where the average property value is $588,000.

Searches for properties in the suburb, which is dominated by affordable one-bedroom apartments, were up 77.4% on the first five months of 2022.

Upmarket Remuera was the next most popular suburb, with searches in the suburb up 65.4% year-on-year. The wealthy enclave is home to some of New Zealand’s most expensive homes, but for the average property hunter it is also highly desirable as much of the suburb, like neighbouring Mount Eden, is zoned for top schools Auckland Grammar and Epsom Girls.

Remuera’s average property value is $2.662 million, but some homes in the suburb have fetched more than $20 million this year.

Flat Bush, in Auckland’s south east, was the country’s third most searched location.

Ray White Flat Bush branch manager Ken Ralph says the suburb is changing daily with the amount of building going on, which is probably what is drawing eyes there.

“It’s most probably the new housing has attracted people there. All through Flat Bush there it’s all very new developments, new houses,” he says.

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“Every week there’s new neighbourhoods developed out there. A lot of them are quite substantial, four to six to eight-bedroom homes so quite spacious family homes.”

New services have gone in, including schooling and the Ormiston Town Centre, and there are new businesses.

Ralph says people are attracted to brand-new or very new and the interest probably reflects a trend of people not wanting to have to upgrade an existing home.

Other suburbs in the top 10 list include Papatoetoe, Henderson and Pukekohe, which boast some of Auckland's most affordable houses.

Flat Bush, in south east Auckland, has seen a flood of new homes hit the market in recent months. Photo / Getty Images

In Wellington, the most searched suburbs were Te Aro in the inner city, Mt Victoria in central Wellington and Tawa in the north towards Porirua.

Te Aro saw over 135% more searches year-on-year while Tawa had an increase of 68.8% – but Mt Victoria stood out with 408.3% more searches.

Professionals RedCoats co-owner Paul Dickason says probably people are thinking it’s a good time to try to get a bargain in Mt Victoria, which is a well-established and tightly-held suburb.

“When the market crashes, the wealthier suburbs tend to take the biggest hit so it’s possible that people are trying to see if there are any bargains in Mt Victoria.

“Mt Victoria is old money, sought-after, walk to work, so if you were ever doing anything about moving to Mt Vic now would be the time to try and buy a house there, because houses may have halved.”

The interest in Tawa, where the average property value is $851,000, is likely to be a flight to affordability, he says.

“People will be sitting on 2 and 3% fixed interest rates and thinking ‘oh my goodness, in six or twelve months’ time I'm going to be paying twice as much mortgage, I wonder if I should go and live in Tawa and find an affordable home.’”

Te Aro in the CBD, where the average value is $713,000, could be being searched because it has affordable apartments and developments which have come to fruition, and sales in Te Aro have nearly trebled in the last month year-on-year.

Christchurch has had eyes drawn especially to Halswell, Saint Albans and Christchurch Central, with Halswell gaining a more than 100% increase in searches year-on-year.

Tony Jenkins, Harcourts Holmwood CEO, says Halswell, to the southwest, where the average value is $827,000, has seen a lot of subdivision happening.

“Halswell is a popular area. There’s been a lot of section development. People do like to live in Halswell and it’s only a quick run into the city as well so it’s a popular family area I suppose you could call it.

“Saint Albans [average property value $882,000] is a real market that’s close to town, it’s a redevelopment area, it’s probably affordable for first-home buyers and it’s probably an up-and-coming area in terms of close to the city.”

Jenkins’ office has a number of development properties on the market in Saint Albans, and OneRoof records show the biggest settled sale in Christchurch so far this year was there with $3.05m paid for a property in Knowles Street.

Christchurch Central, where the average value is $655,000, is looking “pretty sharp”, says Jenkins, after the rebuild following the earthquakes.

“That’s probably why you’re getting a lot of interest in the inner city. People are realising there’s good facilities in town now. There’s good restaurants, good shopping and people are looking at can they buy an apartment or whatever the case may be.”

In Dunedin the most-searched suburbs were Mosgiel, Dunedin Central and Saint Clair, all with searches increasing well over 100% year-on-year, with Mosgiel’s increase higher at 171.2%.

The average value in Mosgiel is $712,000. The suburb is about 15 minutes west of Dunedin central and Ray White Dunedin co-owner John Murphy says people could be searching there because Mosgiel has more building going on than anywhere because there is still the land to do it.

“Whereas Dunedin’s fairly well done unless they’ve taken away current properties and rebuilding on them.”

Mosgiel is attractive to a range of people, including retiring farmers and commuters, and it has good infrastructure.

“It’s a nice flat area to live in and it’s got a separate climate to Dunedin, albeit it’s colder over the winter, it can be quite a bit warmer in the winter.”

Dunedin’s biggest settled sale so far this year was in Mosgiel, with a Gordon Road property selling for $1.85m.

Queenstown remains a hot favourite with buyers, including international house hunters. Photo / Getty Images

Dunedin central, where the average value is $712,000, has a strong student/rental market and Murphy has noticed a lot more properties are coming on the market.

“We’ve done quite a few apartments recently around town, beautiful apartments, too, so people looking to live closer to the workplace.”

Saint Clair, where the average value is $850,000, is five kilometres from the city centre, has a long sandy beach and is just a “cool” suburb with great cafes, eateries and surf shops, he says.

“It’s just a really neat place, it’s got a great feel, it’s got its own culture.”

In Queenstown-Lakes, demand continues unabated. The suburb of Queenstown attracted the most searches with Jack’s Point third, but the Dalefield/Wakatipu Basin area, where the average property value is $4.6m, saw searches increase by 259%.

The biggest settled sale to date this year was in Dalefield with $15.08m paid for a Haggitt Lane property marketed by New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agents.

The average value for Queenstown was $1.57m with searches up 53.8%, and for Jack’s Point, average value $1.808m, searches were up 66%.

Premium agent Hamish Walker says he regularly meets with Aucklanders and Australians who are interested in property in Queenstown.

When people buy there they often reflect what’s happening in their own market, be that Christchurch, Auckland or Sydney.

“If you watch those markets like I do they often coincide. Last month I personally sold just over $15m, about maybe 10% to Australian buyers, another 10% to Aucklanders and the rest are sort of locals.

“I would have at least one person a week that would fly in for a whole day, usually from either Auckland or Australia, and I’ve noticed in the last month out of Auckland and probably three months out of Australia there are a lot more determined to buy.

“Six or 12 months ago there was more hesitation so it’s good to see that confidence coming back and I put a lot of that down to the fact our median sales price hasn’t declined, and those other markets are starting to pick up quite nicely.”

Walker says demand is always good in central Queenstown, saying people like buying on Queenstown Hill which is within minutes of the CBD.

“Especially with Aussies. They want to buy close to the CBD so they can not only enjoy their house with the views, they want to enjoy what the town has to offer.”

Jack’s Point has a more upmarket area but also has Hanley’s Farm, which is popular with first-home buyers, and there are a lot of home and income properties there.

He also says stock levels have fallen which contributes to properties selling quickly.

“About three months ago you had about 400 properties on the market in Queenstown, now there’s just under 300 so there’s a real low level of stock, a 30% decrease on three months ago so any new stock that’s half good, half decent, will get sold reasonably quick for good money.”

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