A young Auckland couple bought an elegant French-style house in Tern Point, in Mangawhai, sight unseen for $3.115 million last week.
The listing agent, Barfoot & Thompson’s Helen Powell, said the buyers were familiar with the area but had been prevented from inspecting the house in person due to the Covid travel restrictions.
“The house was a huge property, over 400 sqm, even though it’s just two bedrooms. It’s on Tara Iti golf course, with beautiful water views. We used virtual viewings, but the buyers, a younger couple from Auckland, were familiar with the area,” she said.
“Like a lot of people moving up here, they plan to live here and work remotely.”
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The Tern Point gated community adjoins the exclusive Tara Iti golf course favoured by rich-listers, politicians and presidents (Barak Obama and John Key played there in 2018).
Powell said the Mangawhai area is changing from baches and second homes to young families making the permanent move out of Auckland. Some, she said, were entry level buyers hoping to spend around $1.1m to $1.2m for a home, but others were spending between $3m and $5m.
She said that the road into town was crazily busy last week when the border between Auckland and Northland opened, and she and fellow agents are braced for a busy couple of weeks as Auckland buyers start their holidays - and their house-hunting.
The Tern Point, house was bought sight unseen by an Auckland couple who plan to make this their permanent home. Photo / Supplied
Barfoot & Thompson’s Mangawhai branch held off auctioning another five properties until Tuesday this week to give Auckland buyers time over the weekend to view properties after the border opened.
Branch manager John Davy said that while there were some buyers prepared to buy sight unseen, there was a lot of pent-up demand from people who needed to see properties for themselves.
“We sold about one-third of properties sight unseen, using video walk-through or a trusted third party. Or some buyers are very familiar with the area and had looked around before this lockdown,” he said.
“We’ve got busier in the last week as people tried to beat others across the border. The weekend and then [this week] as we’re closer to Christmas, we’ve been getting good quality enquiry.”
Another Tern Point, Mangawhai home sold before lockdown for $3.52m. Photo / Supplied
Davy said that while there were over 30 listings in the area, there was a lot more about to come to market on or after Christmas, with the first auctions of 2022 planned for January 20.
“The properties have got to be available earlier because of the pent-up demand, compared to other years when it’s more into February scenario [for listing].”
Bayleys Mangawhai agent Christine Birss, who specialises in nearby Langs Beach and Langs Cove, said the problem in the area was that “it’s like Hotel California - nobody wants to leave”.
“People appreciate how this is a change of pace, instead of spending hours in Auckland traffic. Things that you could only get in the city, you can get here now. You can order online, the schools are really good, you can do more with your kids because it doesn’t take as long to get around town.
“All the kids join the surf club, they learn to give back to the community.”
A resort-like property in Langs Beach, near Mangawhai, listed by Bayleys agent Christine Birss has a ratings valuation of $3.625m. Photo / Supplied
Birss said she’d sold all but a handful of listings (which, she said, often means a deal signed on either Christmas Eve or New Year Eve), and said Auckland owners will be up in the summer to prep their houses and make decisions about selling in the New Year.
One of Birss’ listings, a luxury four-bedroom property on Cove Road, Langs Beach a 484 sqm Tuscan-style home with large designer swimming pool and jacuzzi has a July 2021 ratings valuation of $3.625m and OneRoof records show it changed hands nearly five years ago for $3.1m.
Top end buyers have not slowed down, and prices are rising across the board. OneRoof figures show the average property value has risen 31% ($308,000) in the last 12 months to $1.268m, and a whopping 69% over the last five years.
Ray White agent Shane Romani, who had Auckland buyers booked to view a modern luxury property on Tern Point on the morning the borders opened, told OneRoof she had a waiting list for the weekend.
She is selling two properties in the estate, a two-bedroom homed designed as the starter home/stables for an eventual big lodge on a 5495 sqm site, and another architect-designed home, on 6653 sqm park-like grounds.
Before lockdown there had been sales of $3.52m and $3.69m in Tern Point, she said, adding that she had also made two sight unseen sales elsewhere in Mangawhai for over $2m each.
Many of her buyers intend to use their Mangawhai residence as their primary home.
Ray White branch manager Kaye McElwain said that the office had just completed its best sales month ever in the nine years it had been in the growing beach town.
“It didn’t matter if it was $900,000 land or $2.705m house, we had multiple offers, some even from Australia. I’d say 50% of our sales were sight unseen.
“It was definitely FOMO, people wanted to secure something.”
McElwain added that the slowdown in new listings was mainly due to Auckland owners not being able to get up to their houses to get them ready for sale.
“People will use their places themselves over Christmas and then we’ll get the listings later in January. In February/March buyers will say ‘let’s do it’.”
Certainly Auckland real estate agents are noting the upswing in people move out of the city to other towns, permanently.
In a survey of 100 new listings with his company’s North Shore offices in December, Harcourts Cooper & Co managing director Martin Cooper found that 17% of sellers were people cashing out of Auckland to move to the regions (and a further 5% were heading off shore).
“That’s been quite the story for the last three years, but it’s really sped up a bit more this year – maybe 5% up,” he told OneRoof.
“You look at the growth in property prices in places like Whanganui, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay – a lot of that is fuelled by Aucklanders. There’s a lag of people coming in because of Covid, but I’m pretty sure Auckland will come back.”
Closer to the city, Ray White agent Ross Hawkins has had a flood of sales at coastal Weiti Bay, on the northern North Shore and huge interest in west coast coastal property.
“While the market in Auckland seems to have gone off the boil this past week with everyone focused on the end of year and having a well-deserved break, the coastal market is doing the opposite. It’s simply a change of focus,” he said.
“There will be a rush, everyone’s making decisions over the holidays and coming back to buy, particularly in the winterless north.
“Buyers are living and working more remotely, they’re not five days in the city anymore,” Hawkins said.
