Agents selling luxury lifestyle properties on the edges of New Zealand's biggest cities say they have been unaffected by the slowdown in other parts of the housing market.
They told OneRoof that buyers are prepared to pay big money for the right property, with one agent recently closing a deal for $10m for a cliff top estate. They all report that stock levels are not enough to meet demand, and that as a result, prices are holding firm.
Precision Real Estate agent Nicky White, who covers blue-chip country spots north of Auckland, in Coatesville and Okura, said that city buyers were keen to make the switch.
“That $4m to $8m bracket is pretty popular. That means that places that were $3.8m or so five years ago could now get $6m," she said.
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“Lifestyle, particularly with coastal nearby, has kept on pegging up and will always hold its own,” she said.
Many of White's high-end deals are confidential, but recent sales include a four-bedroom home on 4000 sqm on the waterfront at Warman Road, Okura, which fetched around $5m, and a four-bedroom 460sqm Italian-style home on 1.34ha on Okura River Road, which also sold for around $5m.
A six-bedroom house with a pool on Glenmore Road, Coatesville, north of Auckland, sold recently. Photo / Supplied
“A lot are people doing the ‘Coatesville shuffle’, upgrading and moving around. They come for the schooling, want a bit more privacy and they stay put through the school years.
“There are some increasingly beautiful new builds, but we won’t see those on the market for another ten years,” she said.
Ray White agent Ross Hawkins said demand for land in the gated Reserve development, in Okura, has been so strong that the developers, Todd Properties, have just put prices up, with 4ha lots by the water now asking $5.85m to $6.4m.
“We sold 16 of the 29 lots in the first year, 2020, when we’d expected that to take two to three years. As a lot of the houses get built, we expect to see the next wave of sales,” he said.
Hawkins said that said city people were also keen on brand new properties in Riverhead, in the north west, where house and land packages at 35, 37 and 39 Elliot Street had asking prices of $3.75m.
“You get a large section, a pool, you’re on the water so you can launch your boat at the ramp and push out to the city, but you can also walk to the pub,” he said.
Bayleys agent Kellie Bissett, who specialises in lifestyle properties around Matakana, north of Auckland, told OneRoof that there were not enough properties for buyers.
Developer Todd Properties just increased the asking price for 4ha waterfront properties on The Reserve, north of Auckland. Photo / Supplied
“They’ve been looking for a while, all up the Matakana coast from Scotts Point to Leigh. The property needs to be a little bit special, but we just don’t have the stock,” she said.
Her recent sales include $10m for a five-bedroom cliff-top home on 2.4ha on Tatham Road, Ti Point, well above the property's $6.725m CV, and $3m for an architecturally designed two-bedroom house on 2733sqm on Ridge Road.
“People are paying the same as what they would have paid last year, not less. It’s attractive, and it’s not like they have to sell [their city house] to buy here," she said.
“These are qualified buyers – there are more than I could count on two hands."
Caleb Paterson, director of Telos Group said that many of the luxury lifestyle sales his company was doing were hard to spot because the deals were done off market.
“We’re working on deal for $12m. It’s across Rodney, Dairy Flat and Coatesville,” he said.
Buyers were coming out from the city, he said, because they were anxious about development changes to their neighbourhoods.
A luxury house on the outskirts of Invercargill on Bainfield Road, Waihopai, has an asking price of $3.3m. Photo / Supplied
“They’re worried if they do their $1m renovation then next door the heritage house won’t be protected. Some people are looking as far as Mangawhai and the Whangarei Heads. It's not much further [from Auckland] if you’re a retiree or downsizer.”
According to figures released last week by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, lifestyle property prices are up 16.7% year on year.
The median price for all lifestyle properties sold in the three months to the end of May 2022 was $1.05m, $149,995 higher than in the three months to the end of May 2021.
However, the number lifestyle property sales havs slid, from 2548
in the three months to the end of May 2021 to 1743 in the three months to the end of May 2022.
The REINZ figures highlighted a 133% lift in sales numbers in Southland and 62% lift in the median sale price of lifestyle properties in the region.
A four bedroom home for sale at 458 Whitehills Road, Waitoki. Photo / Supplied
Southland Real Estate agent Graeme Hegan said that Invercargill has not felt the softening of other parts of the country.
He said lifestyle buyers in his region are a mix of farmers moving to a smaller block, trading down or sideways, or young professionals (“in Invercargill that can mean tanker drivers or lawyers”) wanting the country lifestyle for their kids.
“Unlike Auckland, they come from rural backgrounds, there’s strong demand for something 10 minutes from town.”
Hegan said buyers coming into the district from Auckland can’t always get their heads around local prices, expecting bargains even for top end properties.
He says local buyers understand the value of a couple of the most expensive homes the agency is listing– a five bedroom house on 2ha on Bainfield Rod, Waihopa, and a 740sqm house on over 32ha in Ryal Bush – while Auckland buyers expect cheaper.
“Yes, you can get a decent lifestyle block for $600,000 to $700,000. But this is, if not the best house in the area then certainly one of them, a good location, good schools.
“This is not the central Otago buyer, people are coming here specifically for the region. Covid didn’t affect the market values, and, except for first home buyer segment [under $500,000] values have lifted,” he said.
“We’re trying to keep it a secret down here.”
