Once a weekend bolthole for Hamiltonians and surfers, Raglan has fast become a place to which out-of-town buyers want to move permanently.
Raglan’s most expensive properties, priced between $3 million and $4m, remain the most popular with cashed-up buyers ready to jump on a waterfront property on the rare occasion one comes up for sale.
Buyers in the lower $650,000 to $800,00 price range who are facing tighter lending restrictions are holding back and, as a result, there are cheaper Raglan houses to choose from.
The average property value for the town is $1.158m, down 10% on the same time last year, according to OneRoof-Valocity data.
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Ray White salesperson Blair Hanna says most families house hunting in Raglan are after permanent residences and he’s only sold a couple of properties in the last few years to buyers looking for holiday homes.
Aucklanders generally come to the town with several million to spend, he says, while those from Hamilton tend to have a more modest budget of between $800,000 and $1m.
The high-end buyers are the only ones who don’t make offers conditional to selling their other home, he adds.
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Instead, their biggest challenge is trying to find their dream property that either is on the water or has water views.
“I think there are more buyers in the higher end because as I say they are not reliant on any banks, they are just coming with their cash so they don’t care what the interest rates are doing.”
Hanna, along with colleague Yana Pemberton, is selling a two-bedroom, two-bathroom waterfront property at 808B Wainui Road, which is the only waterfront properties on the market at the moment that’s either on the harbour or the beach.
The last time one of the 10 properties in Whale Bay came on the market in the tightly-held surf spot was four years ago, when a home on Tohora Close sold for $2.5m.
“It’s pretty rare for a property to come up at Whale Bay, if anyone has got one there they seem to hang onto it and never want to let go. It’s sort of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get into there – especially the one we are marketing as there’s direct access to the water.”
The two-bedroom home in Whale Bay has direct beach access. Photo / Supplied
The Whale Bay property was last on the market 17 years ago. Photo / Supplied
The “one-of-a-kind" beachfront property has only been for sale for a few days and already has attracted interest from Kiwis living abroad and those living in the country who want to return to the town and be as close to the surf as possible.
“Whale Bay is one of the best surf spots in New Zealand – it's just a surfing mecca really. Any surfer would give anything to have a house right on the surf spot there,” Hanna says.
“Mainly it’s surfers that buy in there if they’ve got the cash. And I would say it’s a surfer who is going to buy this one.”
The property is being sold at auction on September 2 and while Hanna would not give a price indication, it is classed as high-end.
Some of the most significant waterfront sales so far this year include a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home on Wainui Road with impressive views over Manu Bay that sold for $2.15m, a property on Cliff Street that sold for $2.78m, and another on Nihinihi Avenue that fetched $2.7m.
Bayleys salesperson Mark Frost, who sold the Wainui Road property in April to a Queenstown family wanting to move back to the area, says Raglan has been averaging about five sales a month in the past few months. He puts this down to market pressures and the fact that it’s the beach town’s off-peak season.
“I guess people don’t do beach house shopping in the middle of winter.”
Frost says most of the buyers looking now want permanent homes in the mid to high-end price range, but he thinks this will change coming into summer as people start looking for holiday homes again.
Architecturally-designed villas in the new Rangitahi Peninsula are priced between $1.1m and $1.6m. Photo / Supplied
He is selling 11 high-end architecturally designed townhouses in the new Rangitahi Peninsula subdivision ranging in price from $1.1m to $1.6m, while a modern three-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 14A Norrie Avenue to be sold by deadline private treaty closing August 22 is attracting bach buyers.
“I would say there will be an upsurge in spring as there usually is with waterfront properties bearing in mind that the election is pending. As we get closer to the election people start to put things on hold until they know what the government is doing.”
And while there may be more buyers than high-end stock available, the reverse is true for properties in the lower end of Raglan’s house market.
“Entry-level after Covid has dropped down to late $600,000, early $700,000 range, but for a first-home buyer that is kind of up there as well, so it will take a little bit longer for those first-home buyers to come back to the Raglan market.”
Property Brokers salesperson Jono Hutson has noticed more people coming through open homes and making offers in the last couple of months. He has also been carrying a lot of appraisals so he expects stock levels to lift later this year.
A two-bedroom home on 54 Main Road is entry-level buying for Raglan. Photo / Supplied
And while there are more buyers, Hutson says a lot of them are still after a bargain and have even asked him if there are any distressed sellers.
The drop in property values in the town has also made it easier for locals and first-home buyers to get on the Raglan property market, he says. A renovated home at 54 Main Road is priced at $799,000 and an example of entry-level buying in the town.
“I guess in Raglan in general you are buying the location, that piece of dirt and the house almost a bonus in some respect – when you look at that one on Cornwall Road or Whale Bay, they are definitely destination spots within Raglan that will continue to hold their value and go up in value as well.”
Hutson adds that Raglan’s property market is still in its “infancy”, which he expects will change as more people move in.
“Even when you see those types of properties or recent sales of $3.3m or $2.5m, while that is respectively a lot of money, it’s just small time of where Raglan is going.”
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