Listings are in short supply on Waiheke Island, especially in the $4m to $5m price range.
Matthew Smith, principal of Ray White on the island, said mid-range properties, usually large and with sea views, were in hot demand.
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“We’ve been selling properties that aren’t on the market and had to resort to being buyers’ agents, taking unsolicited offers to home owners,” he said.
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Agents working on behalf of the buyer, instead of the home-owner, are a common feature of housing markets around the world but not so in New Zealand.
But Smith said the practice is becoming much more the norm in Waiheke’s heated housing market, mostly due to the extremely low number of listings on the island.
“With the lack of stock and the lack of people wanting to come to the market we just have to do it really,” he said.
Sometimes agents identify a property for a buyer based on their description of what they want, and sometimes buyers want a particular property and get the agent to present an offer.
Listings overall on the island are at an all-time low and part of that is potential vendors not wanting to let go of their prize possession, Smith says.
“They’re thoroughly enjoying their piece of lifestyle and because they can’t go overseas they want to maintain what they’ve got to enjoy.”
A house on Waiheke Road, in Onetangi, recently sold to a Kiwi living in Germany for $1m. Photo / Supplied
Other people are holding off listing because it’s winter but Smith says there is such a strong buyer pool waiting for spring may not be the right move.
Others who might want to list fear not being able to buy back into the market and “that sort of chokes the market as well”.
Coastal areas around New Zealand are seeing a huge demand from buyers and Waiheke is no different. The latest OneRoof figures show house prices on the island have jumped 40% in the last 12 months, with the island’s median property value now sitting at $1.3m, although in some parts of the island, the median value is a high $2.26m.
“There’s around 9000 (people) that live there permanently and then when the baches fill up there’s around 30,000 so three times the number,” Smith said.
When properties hit the market, bidding is fierce.
Two recent listings, one at Waiheke Road, in Onetangi, and one at 14 Rata Street, in Oneroa, sold for $1m and $1.52m respectively and these price levels are considered entry level these days.
The Waiheke Road property sold to a Kiwi living in Germany who bid on the phone. The buyer is not planning to come home yet but wanted a holiday home for some time in the future.
A number of homes and baches on the island were sitting waiting for owners to come back when the pandemic is over, Smith said, while other homes were empty because owners don’t want to deal with the new rental rules.
On the market: 14 and 16 Coromandel Road, in Sandy Bay. Photo / Supplied
Since Covid-19, prices for baches and houses on Waiheke had gone “absolutely crazy” but, unlike other parts of Auckland, that’s not the case for land.
Waiheke has different rules around development land meaning most land available is for lifestyle -but many people don’t want to invest in the time and trouble of building.
“People are looking at it and saying by the time I get an architect, by the time I get the resource and building consents and hopefully the materials are available, because we’ve got a shortage of materials, and the escalating cost around that, and the unknown about cost and the unknown about timing, they’re going to be two years minimum and most likely three years before they even get in there.”
Mark Spitz, branch manager for Bayleys on the island, said Waiheke had a “momentous” shift in values over the past 12 months, with stock selling quickly at packed auctions.
He added that it was still possible to get into the island, and his agency was able to help first home buyers secure a property recently. “If you’re prepared to set your expectations at a certain level there’s still opportunities to get in – it’s difficult for them but it’s not impossible.”
Bayleys has listed some strong properties recently, including 22 Rothschild Terrace, in Te Whau, which has four bedrooms, a swimming pool and sea views, and 14 and 16 Coromandel Road, in Sandy Bay, which are being marketed as “do ups” and are good opportunities which just need “an injection of enthusiasm.
“There are opportunities like that where you can get fantastic location still with a perfectly fine, liveable home but you create your own dynamic to it and see some upside through your hard work and investment and what you do going forward,” he said.
