NZ's highest turnover suburbs

Suburbs with the highest turnover of homes are often jam-packed with people getting onto the property ladder, staying a year or two and then upgrading.

Figures from OneRoof and its data partner, Valocity pinpointed Albany on Auckland’s North Shore, Eden Terrace and Grafton in Auckland City, East Tamaki in Manukau, and suburbs to the north east of Hamilton as among the busiest suburbs in the land.

The data analysis, which looked at sales of houses in existence since the year 2000, found that while parts of the North Shore, such as Belmont, Milford and Takapuna, had the highest number of tightly-held homes throughout the country, Albany, along with East Tamaki in Manukau, had among the fewest.

James Wilson, Valocity’s director of Insurance and Valuation Innovation, says this makes perfect sense. “We see an influx of home and land packages sold and then there is often a surge of sales after 5-10 years as the ‘first wave’ of those who purchased into a new development move on,” he says.

Ivan Rakich, from Century 21 Albany, says the suburb is indeed booming and will be for some years yet.

People use the suburb as a stepping stone to get into the North Shore and Rakich says while there may be a perception the suburb’s accommodation consists of mainly student rentals due to nearby Massey University, this is not the case - there is a wide mix of properties on offer from apartments and standalone houses to lifestylers in nearby areas like Coatesville which are currently in demand.

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Many apartment buildings have sprung up in Albany in the past ten years and more are being built, Rakich says.

“There’s new blood coming into Albany. Professionals are starting to come in here and first home buyers.

“They’re using Albany to get into the Shore and then they either go out towards rural Dairy Flat and Coatesville and there is a resurgence now to go towards Kaukapakapa, Wainui and Waitoki.”

Albany is becoming “a place to be” with its proximity to beaches and shopping and its nearness to the CBD.

You can buy an apartment in Albany - with two bedrooms and two carparks - sometimes for as little as $500,000, Rakich says, so people stay a few years, save more money, get some capital growth and then upsize.

And because people don’t live in a property as long as they used to, there is no sign of a slowdown.

“Thirty-odd years ago you stayed in your house for either your whole life or around seven or eight years you may have moved. Now people are buying or selling in two years, four years, so they get into the property and four years later they move.”

Outside of new development areas, the OneRoof-Valocity analysis shows far fewer homes are tightly held in suburbs traditionally associated with a higher proportion of investment housing stock, such as the apartment-dominated suburbs of Grafton and Eden Terrace.

Ray White agent Lisa Stone lives in Eden Terrace and says there is a high level of turnover but new upmarket apartments are coming onto the market which are not the usual “little box” apartments and so are more likely to be owner-occupied which may lead to lower turnover.

Both Eden Terrace and Grafton have traditionally had smaller apartments, she says, with Grafton in particular being an area of high student accommodation which means high investor numbers.

“It’s real city fringe. It’s a super convenient location with the university and all of those sorts of things.”

There is more to Grafton than meets the eye, she points out, describing it as a “real hidden suburb”.

“There are a lot of really beautiful family homes you just wouldn’t even know were there.”

These are often historic villas which don’t turn over often so represent a more stable part of the local market.

In Manukau, East Tamaki has high turnover and agents say some of this is due to people entering the market.

“You can get your first home buyer then they’ll upgrade, so they’ll sell and then they’ll maybe upgrade again,” says Adam Thomson, director of Ray White Manukau.

“They’re not normally people’s forever homes, they’re more stepping stones. You’ll get the odd one, a smaller percentage, that are there to stay, and then some of them will turn it from their home to their investment.”

Three bedroom homes in parts of East Tamaki can go for $600,000 which is a great entry level price and these are homes which will also give a good return as investment properties.

“It’s a really strong market because you’ve always got people that want to get into homes or people that want to get into investments, or out of them.”

Outside of Auckland, the suburbs to the north east of Hamilton are among the most active in the country, and these suburbs represent areas of big development.

Sean Foster, general manager of Eves real estate in Hamilton, says Rototuna and Rototuna North and properties in the Flagstaff, Huntington and Grandview heights areas have consistently seen the highest turnovers in Hamilton for a number of years.

“In the last 10 years, Hamilton’s growth has only really existed in that north east area - when I say only, there’s been minimal subdivision out east, out west and out south.

“It’s always been north east, therefore, you’ve got a higher density of homes that are out that way.”

Rototuna and Rototuna North are booming - OneRoof.co.nz has 76 properties for sale in these suburbs alone - and have seen significant council development with swimming pools, libraries and shopping centres going in and high decile sought-after schools attracting people to the areas.