More entry-level properties are finally coming to the market on Waiheke Island, but buyer expecting bargains won't find much under $1.5m.
This week alone Ray White Waiheke owner Matthew Smith spent a day viewing 11 new properties that have gone on the market, or about to, but said the days of under-$1m properties are over.
Prices for houses on the island start at $1.5m, with only sections available for less than that.
“And that doesn’t get you much. It’ll be small, no views, an OK quality dwelling, maybe even less than average, and you’d have to drive to the beach.”
Start your property search
House price growth on Waiheke has been strong, significantly above Auckland’s growth rate. The island's average property value was up 10% - $200,000 - in the last three months to $2.209m, while growth in Auckland has been 7%.
With an average property value of just under $1.4m, Omiha is the island's cheapest suburb, but it's playing catch-up fast, enjoying house price growth of 10.8% in the closing months of 2021.
Surfdale and Ostend, the next cheapest suburbs, both have average property values of just under $1.7m. Those looking for homes in the higher profile suburbs of Oneroa, Onetangi and Palm Beach should come armed with budgets of more than $2m.
This home on Esslin Road, Kennedy Point, goes to auction February 5. Buyers are being sought in the $3m price range. Photo / Supplied
Smith said that most of the second-home buyers coming to the island were unaffected by banks’ tightening lending criteria, but first home buyers and islanders moving around were affected. However, there were still too many buyers for Waiheke’s market to stall.
By example, Smith pointed to the number of buyers chasing a listing at the top end of the market. The stylish three-bedroom clifftop home on Esslin Road, which goes to auction on February 5, had a low-key marketing launch at the end of December, but Smith has already been inundated with inquiries.
https://www.oneroof.co.nz/24-esslin-road-kennedy-point-waiheke-island-auckland-1685296
“We’ve had people begging for appointments. Usually at this time of year they’re not looking seriously yet. And this is for a property with buyer feedback in the high $3ms,” Smith said.
Buyers are also flocking to a more modest entry-level house, a tidy two-bedroom 1980s house on 809sqm on Hartley Avenue, Onetangi, which will be auctioned January 26.
“At a good open home on Waiheke we get four or five groups. This one had nine or 10 groups, and a huge amount of enquiry around the early $1m price. We’re getting truckloads of interest from off the island,” Smith said.
Smith said that land parcels that normally sit on the market for a while are moving swiftly.
A sloping 880sqm section on Glen Brook Road, Omiha, sold in October for $410,000 – more than double the $195,000 it went for seven months earlier.
A smartly renovated house on Hillside Road, Ostend, sold at auction the week before Christmas for $2.21m. Photo / Supplied
But Bayleys agent Mana Tahapehi told OneRoof that the bank restrictions were starting to bite.
“People who thought they had $1.8m to spend are now reduced to budgets of $1.5m by their banks,” he said.
“And anything with compliance issues – that's about 80% of the island – the banks are starting to say ‘sorry, you can’t do it’.”
He added that auction clearance rates dropped quickly in the last weeks of December, a combination of lockdown fatigue and vendors who were holding out for higher prices than the market was prepared to pay. Buyers were still there, though, he said.
A renovated property on Lannan Road, Surfdale, passed in at auction before Christmas for $1.555m and is now for sale by negotiation. Photo / Supplied
“Demand has dampened, but that means it’s dropped back to a more typical market.
“It was quite a quick change. Vendors always think their place is worth more, it’s hard for owners to adjust their expectations. But we’ll get a run in January and February of new listings.
“We can still get an out-of-the-park price for a property that has it all – a good location, presentation, we got $2.21m for a house on Hillside Road, Ostend when other properties passed in.”
