Cashed-up Aucklanders are driving demand in Hawke’s Bay’s multi-million-dollar housing market, as they seek to escape the rush of city life post lockdown.
Bayleys Hawke’s Bay agent Gretchen Paape has noticed a dramatic increase in enquiry from Auckland buyers on the hunt for large lifestyle properties.
A lot of Aucklanders have enquired her most recent listing, a six-bedroom luxury home at 59 Busby Hill, in Havelock North.
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The refurbished 100-year-old house sits on a 5538sqm section and comes with top of the range fittings, a guest wing, a 25m heated swimming pool, hot tub and landscaped gardens.
Paape says all the high-end properties in Hawke’s Bay that were listed before the Covid-19 crisis have sold post-lockdown.
“All the big sales have happened post-Covid. People realise that the $100,000 they might have spent on travel can be invested in property - plus interest rates are so low,” she says.
One property that had been on the market for a year sold to an Auckland couple last month.
“There is a real buzz happening in Hawke’s Bay. New people are moving into the area. Bayleys have sold quite a few properties to Aucklanders for around $3 million.”
Bayleys national auction manager Conor Patton says the majority of buyers in Hawke’s Bay luxury lifestyle property market are from outside the region. “There’s definitely been a lift of interest from buyers outside of the region,” he says.
High-end lifestyle properties don't often come on the market but when they do, they get snapped out quickly due to shortage of listings and high demand. “It seems to be a common theme in many parts of the country,” he says.
217 Thompson Road, in Havelock North, sold under the hammer for $1.254 million after fierce bidding. Photo / Supplied
Patton remembers recently selling a half hectare property with a three-bedroom home at 217 Thompson Road, in Havelock North, for $1.254 million.
The lifestyle property had 13 bidders, with $600,000 as an opening bid, he says.
Fraser Holland, New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty managing director for central North Island, says lifestyle properties close to town in the $1.2 million to $1.5 million are in high demand.
“We are seeing expats but we are also seeing a flight from the city, particularly Auckland, where it’s a good strong market and people are getting good prices for their properties and are able to buy well in the region,” he says, adding that his agents have enquiries from people in Rotorua and Taupo.
However, some buyers moving to the region think they’ll get more for their money than they actually do. "Our median prices continue to escalate and people are probably going to see big jumps in RVs soon,” he says.
“If people make up their mind to move to Hawke’s Bay, they’ll move here,” he says.
OneRoof-Valocity’s house price index shows property values in Havelock North have jumped 10 percent since March 25, the day before the country went into lockdown, while values in Hawke’s Bay as a whole have risen 6 percent.
Bindi Norwell, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, says the region’s median house price hit $585,000 last month - up 17 per cent on September 2019 – while sales volumes rose 21.2 percent in the 12 months to September, the highest for that month since 2006.
“The increasing levels of demand have created tough competition, resulting in multi-offers on many properties,” she says.
