Real estate agents marketing properties in the State Highway 1 riverside towns between Auckland and Hamilton are down to less than 10% of the housing stock they had before Covid.
Dallas Hodge, who owns the Harcourts real estate agencies for Huntly, Ngaruawahia and Te Kauwhata, says that her agents currently have only seven properties to sell – down from an average of 74 in May 2019.
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“Stock is selling really quickly. I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years, I have never seen such low stock.
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“And people have a reluctance to list so stock is not getting replenished. People are saying ‘where will I go to?’ before they list,” says Hodge.
She says so many properties were getting offers within a day or two of being listed that the agency has instituted a deadline date of sale so that more buyers have a fair chance of getting in an offer.
“It depends on the property but we’ve had nine offers on some homes, particularly if they’re in the first-home buyer price range of $300,000 to $400,000.
“We don’t do auctions because first-home buyers need time to get finances sorted, but houses still sell really quickly. In Te Kauwhata they go unconditional in under 20 days.”
A house on Kimihia Road, Huntly, with lake views sold for $850,000. Photo / Supplied
This is 10 days faster than the average 30 days that the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand reports for the rest of the country in May. The property shortage has driven up prices, with OneRoof house prices figures showing Ngaruawahia median values are up 47% on last year to $685,000, Huntly up 46% to $540,000 and Te Kauwhata up 37% to $810,000.
Hodge says the growth in the small towns has been boosted by Aucklanders moving south now that the new Waikato expressway is completed and the commuter train service opened.
A three bedroom house on Hillview Street, Ngaruawahia, sold for $485,000. Photo / Supplied
“Auckland buyers make up 38% of our sales, while buyers from Hamilton are 23%. That’s up from last year, when Aucklanders were only 29% of sales.”
Hodge said that road works and traffic jams turned Aucklanders off for a number of years, but they are now prepared to trade-off the 90-minute commute north for more affordable homes.
That has driven up local prices, she says, with some prices now exceeding the government’s First Home Grant caps of $425,000 for an existing home and $550,000 for a new build.
Houses are selling for way more than their old Waikato District Council rating valuations of 2017 (new valuations are effective from July this year) with recent home buyers paying premiums: a Huntly property with a valuation of $265,000 sold for $420,000, another in Ngaruawahia sold for more than $256,000 above its ratings valuation of $365,000.
Prices in Huntly range from $420,000 for a four-bedroom 1970s home on 893sqm to $850,000 for a smartly presented four-bedroom 1980s house on 1476sqm with lake views.
A six-year-old three-bedroom, two-bathroom brick house sold for $660,000 in Te Kauwhata, while a four-bedroom brick and tile house with lake views got $575,000.
A six-year old house in Matua Close, Te Kauwhata, sold for $665,000. Photo / Supplied
The cheapest, recent sale in Ngaruawahia was $485,000 for a 1980s three-bedroom house, nearly $40,000 above its asking price.
Hodge estimates that similar houses in Hamilton would sell for around $800,000 “while you’re paying $1m for lake view in Hamilton.”
The shortage is not helped by a lack of land opening up for new homes, with scarce developments on the edge of the towns quickly snapped up and slow rollouts.
“In the whole of the Waikato district, there are only 60 sections for sale. The Lakeside, Te Kauwhata will see 1300 new homes, but that’s over seven or eight years. The new Mountain View subdivision at Taupiri sold out 36 sections for between $255,000 and $461,000. A nearby one will auction all 10 sections, but they won’t have the title until August or September 2022.
“The Sleepyhead development at Ohinewai [which aims to build 1100 affordable houses for staff] is creating a lot of interest, but it’s not going to happen overnight, and will take up to 10 years.”
A development at Mountain View, Taupari, sold out all 36 sections. Photo / Supplied
Growing employment opportunities at Sleepyhead, Hampton Downs and big agricultural firms has Hodge expecting more buyers to find work locally and make the most of small-town living.
“It’s a pretty place, we’ve got the lakes and the walking tracks, the wetland at Te Kauwhata, the national cycle trail at Ngaruawahia, Raglan’s only 40 minutes away,” she says.
“Smaller town living gives you a sense of belonging. You walk into the chemist, they know your name, you chat to people in the supermarket. We moved to Huntly from Auckland in 1996 and we’ve been joined by both our parents and siblings, all of whom say they don’t miss city life.”
