Revealed: New Zealand's most tightly held suburbs

New OneRoof figures show the turnover of homes in the past 20 years is not as high as New Zealanders might think.

Nearly 40 per cent of properties across the country that existed in 2000 have not sold in the 20 years since.

The figures also reveal the areas with the most tightly-held homes are Auckland’s North Shore, Porirua near Wellington and Manukau in South Auckland.

OneRoof and its data partner Valocity looked at the number of properties that had not come to the market in the last 20 years and found that many had stayed with the same owners.

“This analysis is interesting as it shows clearly that not all Kiwis within the main urban centres have been ‘cashing in’ and selling their homes during the last 20 years,” says James Wilson, Valocity’s director of valuation innovation.

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The figures show that for many people the home has been purchased to raise a family in or live in as opposed to making a short term profit, he says.

“It does perhaps raise questions about legislation changes over the past two to three years which have been introduced using the angle that ‘everyone is a speculator’.

“There are still those people that are buying their house to live in, so for utility, and they’re not just flicking it off every year as the value goes up so it sort of starts to go against a wee bit of that mass rhetoric.”

In Mangere East, for example, of the 4297 homes in existence in 2000 nearly 60 per cent never went on the market.

While the suburb might have been touted as investor heaven in the boom times, in reality only a relatively small portion of the market was transacting, says Wilson.

“This clearly shows those that are actively speculating are a much smaller portion of the market.

“It’s reassuring to see that in reality we haven’t all become speculator crazy. We’ve still got that core home ownership model which this data suggests has held itself relatively true.”

Auckland

In Auckland, the area with the highest number of tightly-held homes is the North Shore.

Of 60,926 homes in existence in 2000, 26,896, or 44.1 per cent, have not come on the market.

Belmont is the North Shore's most tightly held suburb, with 60.1 per cent of homes that were there in 2000 not sold in the 20 years since.

Martin Cooper, of Harcourts Cooper and Co, is not surprised by the figures. “It’s safe, it’s peaceful, it’s not a through destination. It’s a peninsula so it has a sense of community which people like," he says.

Belmont offers homeowners great views of Rangitoto and Auckland Harbour.

“Once people start having families if they get into that location or they move in with young families the school communities are so good, the education’s fantastic and so is the lifestyle.”

Belmont, where the median value of all properties is $1,065,000, is closely followed by Milford, Takapuna, Hauraki, Rothesay Bay, Bayswater and Narrow Neck, which all clocked in at over 48 per cent of homes in existence in 2000 which are unsold.

And not far behind them is Waiake, Northcote Point, Campbells Bay, Castor Bay, Devonport and Murrays Bay.

Cooper says people tend to think of Auckland as the big smoke but the city is really a lot of small villages which are close together, especially on the Shore.

“I notice each community has got their community newspapers, they’ve got their school community, they’ve got their sailing clubs, sports clubs and local markets.”

The North Shore suburb with the most homes that went to market in the last 20 years was Albany, at 25.7 per cent.

Cooper points out blocks of land have been sold and carved up in that time and many apartments built. Areas like Beach Haven, which has 41.3 per cent of homes in existence in 2000 not going to market in the ensuing years, has high numbers of rental properties but which is now being eyed by first home buyers who see it as an affordable area.

And Glenfield, which has 43.7 per cent of homes tightly-held over the last 20 years, has a lot of long-term rental properties and also a strong immigrant demographic which leads to a lower turnover of properties.

“Once they find a place they stay for a long time, because they’re getting to know a new country and a new environment.”

Porirua

Porirua, near Wellington, has the most tightly-held properties in the country, with 45.7 per cent (5970 of 13052 properties which existed in 2000) but the picture is a little different to Auckland’s affluent North Shore.

Graham Barr, of Ray White, says the statistics likely reflect the buying up of ex-state houses by professional investors.

“Twenty or 30 years ago it was very much a blue collar city with a lot of state housing and the Government back then decided to sell off a lot of the state houses.”

They were in areas like Waitangirua and Te Tahi Bay and many were sold to investors who bought more than one house.

“If you like, these were professional investors and professional investors don’t just flick their houses on, they hold on to them for a long term as a business basically.”

Barr suspects a similar pattern in parts of Upper Hutt (which has 41.5 per cent of unsold homes).

The buying up of ex-state houses in Porirua by investors in the 1990s has contributed to the low turnover in the area.

He says 20 years ago investment properties didn’t get much in the way of capital gain in Upper Hutt or Porirua because in these areas people traditionally rented and didn’t have aspirations to buy, but today there are high and rising rents and capital gains to be had: “If you were an investor why would you let that go”.

In Wellington, 43.4 per cent of homes in existence in 2000 have not come to the market, but Barr says many properties in Wellington Central, for example, may appear tightly-held but are actually apartments facing multiple issues, including not being able to sell because body corporate fees have increased on the back of high insurance costs.

Ann Curtis, an agent with Bayleys, says many Wellington suburbs have properties that are tightly held. She lives in Oriental Bay, where the OneRoof statistics show 61.5 per cent of homes in existence in 2000 have not changed hands.

Curtis says it’s not so easy to find a nice property in Wellington so once people do find one they tend to hang on to them.

Oriental Bay is one of those suburbs, where most homes have lovely views and where you get to walk 20 minutes around the waterfront to the CBD, she says.

Manukau

The Auckland suburb of Manukau has the third highest number of tightly-held properties in the country at 44 per cent.

Dean Edmonds, branch manager of Harcourts Titanium Manukau, is not surprised because while Manukau might be portrayed as a nest of investors and speculators, he says there is a very stable side to the area.

“The media talk about investors coming into the market but they forget about the communities where families bring up their children over the last 20 years, especially the Pacific Island families, they don’t tend to move too often.”

These are families who live in the communities they were raised in.

Manukau suburbs are popular with families who grew up there.

“Their kids go to the local schools and when they grow up and purchase a home they usually purchase near their parents if they can, and in South Auckland that’s a lot easier to do than the millennials who are brought up in more affluent suburbs where they can’t buy first homes.”

Mangere, Otara, Mangere East, Flat Bush, Papatoetoe and Mangere Bridge all have high numbers of homes which have not gone to market in 20 years (of those properties which existed in 2000).

Often in these suburbs parents might head back to where they are originally from and their children take over the family home, Edmonds says.

These long-term owners exist alongside investors and speculators who are also always active in those areas, Edmonds says.

Christchurch

In Christchurch, where 35.3 per cent of homes in existence since 2000 had not come to the market, the figures are skewed by the earthquakes which damaged hundreds of homes.

In some areas people would have liked to hang on to their homes but couldn’t, says Justin Haley of Bayleys.

“There would have been some hands played definitely through that timeframe. We had some strong growth 2012-2015, we had some insurance money floating around, cash pay outs, so probably it was a time for a general transact and people may have been forced on making decisions they weren’t intending on.”

Topping the list of tightly-held properties in Christchurch is Robinsons Bay, which is heading towards Akaroa, and the bulk of properties is probably made up of long-term residents or bach owners from Christchurch, says Haley.

Also high in terms of tightly-held homes is Rapaki near Lyttelton which Haley describes as a stunning part of the world where people probably move in and don’t let go.