West Auckland's housing market is going so strong that Craig Smith’s Ray White team netted $17 million in sales in the last month.
Smith, who co-owns five Ray White offices in West Auckland, said that the market was so hot right now that properties whose owners hadn’t been able to shift in the last few years were now selling.
“Put it this way, properties that have not sold in the past, I encourage them to come to market.”
Smith has never seen a market like it and while there is usually a buyers’ or a sellers’ market, this one was a bit of a hybrid, he said.
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Low interest rates are bringing out buyers galore leading to high levels of competition for homes and owners are getting strong prices.
Sales last month ranged in price from just above $600,000 to $2 million-plus, reflecting West Auckland's diverse housing market.
A house in Burgundy Park, a street near Henderson Heights with the highest average CVs in West Auckland, recently sold for $2.65 million, netting the owner a $460,000 profit from when he bought the house in February.
Fighting money
The owner had intended to live in the house but had found himself trapped in Japan because of Covid-19 and decided he no longer needed it, Smith says.
Smith says every home his company has auctioned since Auckland went into its second lockdown has sold, and he advises buyers to be prepared to spend a bit more.
“The affordability is one of the things that’s driving this market very strongly and that is the buyers can afford to pay more because the interest rates are so low and they’re going to drop further so it’s only going to make it even easier," he says.
Smith says the first house he ever sold was in 1988 for $108,000. Twenty years later he sold it again for $430,000 and it’s now worth about $900,000.
“I say to people always have some fighting money with you – whatever it is you said you’re going to pay, always have a little bit more.”
Buyer interest in 2/35 Wattle Street, in New Lynn, has been high. Photo / Supplied
REINZ figures show the top five Waitakere City suburbs which had the largest increase in sales volumes between July last year and this July were Swanson, Piha, Westgate, Whenuapai and West Harbour, and the top five which had the largest increase in median prices for the same period were Waiatarua, New Lynn, Te Atatu Peninsula, Swanson and Piha.
A lot of West Auckland has seen rapid change in recent years with new building and developments. In Swanson, for example, a lot of winery and fallow land has been divided up for developments, while areas like Piha are expensive to buy in because of its seaside nature, black sands and wild water of the Tasman.
The dam has burst
“In Westgate, Swanson and Ranui, all those fringe areas, you’re talking large pieces of what was farmland which under the new Unitary Plan have been claimed by developers and are being put into multi-units,” says Smith.
Waitarua has seen some big sales of lifestyle properties, including a recent one for $2 million. The suburb is near the Waitakere Ranges and the next suburb out from Oratia, which Smith says is another location performing strongly.
New Lynn started performing the moment the twin lining was put in for the western line, suddenly making train transport more viable.
194b Huia Road, in Titirangi, is expected to sell above its $1.285 million CV. Photo / Supplied
“The development in New Lynn has been significant. People want to be within walking distance to that. New Lynn used to be basically a starter suburb for buyers but now there’s lots of first home opportunities but also significantly more second and third home opportunities than it used to have.”
Onsite auctions are starting up again this weekend and Smith expects many to go above reserve. A two-bedroom townhouse on the block at 2/35 Wattle Street, in New Lynn, had seen “exceptional” interest. “The CV’s around $630,000 or $640,000 as I recall and we’ll be selling well over $700,000 I would expect,” Smith says.
He expects four-bedroom modern home at 194b Huia Road, in Titirangi, to sell above its $1.285 million CV.
Smith says there is so much interest in properties that some days he’s logging over 100 calls and likens coming out of lockdown as a bit like a dam bursting. “You’ve had a big logjam in this river and the weight and the power behind it gets more and more and when the obstruction is removed the market moves very quickly, and it has really swamped the market in many respects.”
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell says median house prices in Waitakere City have increased 7.5 per cent in the past 12 months from being in the more “affordable” bracket of $770,000 for the six months ending July last year to $827,400 for the six months ending July this year.
“This uplift in median price is likely a reflection of the popularity of West Auckland as an area which provides access to good school zones, great outdoor/lifestyle opportunities, good shopping, a range of public transport options and to top it all off the area has some amazing beaches.
“Unsurprisingly, there has been a big uplift in the number of $1m-plus properties sold in Waitakere City which has increased by 39.5% when you compare the six months ending July 2019 compared to six months ending July 2020.
Demand for listings
“Showing the popularity of West Auckland, the number of properties sold in the last six months (1,728) has already surpassed the number of properties sold in the corresponding period during 2019 sales (1,698),” she says.
Diane Stevenson, of Ray White Te Atatu, says her office has had no stand-out sales – because they have all been stand-out sales.
“The listings, once we get them, are selling like hotcakes. Multiple offers on everything and really good prices for our owners. It’s a very good cycle.”
Low stock is an issue, though, with Stevenson saying she has never seen stock so low in her 30 years in real estate.
“I don’t even know if it was this low after the sharemarket crash. I think people are just scared in general. I think they’re just a little bit hesitant because, you know, they don’t know if they’re going to have a job.”
She is seeing a good mix of people looking, from first home buyers and investors to buyers of luxury properties. “We’ve had some nice ones go in Waimanu Bay (a new affluent subdivision) just recently. Lovely, lovely homes with views down to the city (and water views).
“We do appraisals and we think wow, it would be nice if we get the higher end of the appraisal figures for the owners and we’re achieving that and sometimes over because of multiple offer situations or auction situations.
“It’s an exciting time in real estate, that’s for sure. No wonder all the tv celebrities are changing career.”
Because prices on the Peninsula have risen, there aren’t so many first home buyers, she says. “They’re going out further into the west in Massey, Henderson, Glen Eden, those sorts of areas. There are lots of lovely new homes and even in the new subdivision of Westgate is quite good for the first home buyers.”
