The stream of Aucklanders heading to the northern reaches of the city has created a property boom – and crisis – for the small town of Warkworth.
And don’t suggest that the town is a suburb of Auckland. While officially part of Rodney, it still thinks of itself as a small town (population 5600), with the lifestyle to match.
“We’re close enough for a city commute, but we definitely think of ourselves as a country town,” says Mark Macky, Bayleys’ director of the company’s 13 offices in the north, who is based on the rural fringes of the town.
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Macky says that unlike Pukekohe, a former country town on the southern boundary of the super city that’s now absorbed as a suburb, Warkworth’s growth is yet to come.
“It will take a few years, with the motorway still coming. But it is the hub service town for the whole of Mahurangi to Kaipara Flats area.” The un-met demand is for single family homes, either established ones in the heart of town or newer subdivisions in the fringes, says Bayleys agent Anthony Shaw.
Five new houses being built at at Motiti Rise, Warkworth have asking prices starting at $1.215m. Photo / Supplied
In the first quarter of this year, only 31 properties sold, well down from the 44 that sold in the same quarter last year before Covid hit. The company estimates there are just 57 listings for residential property in the town.
“A quarter acre in town, that’s very, very desirable. If I had 20 of those, they’d all be sold to buyers priced out of Auckland,” Shaw says.
Shaw points to a recent sale for “incredible money” - an 80sqm three-bedroom do-up 1950s house at 28 Bertram Street on a 796sqm that sold for $951,000.
“We sold it in 2017 at the peak of the market for $650,000. Pre-Covid you’d expect to pay maybe in the $700,000s.
“Prices are going up $50,000 to $100,000 a month.”
A four-bed 1980s family home on 875 sqm at 4 Vernon Shaw Place goes to auction this week. Photo / Supplied
“There are no sections in Warkworth at the moment, you’d be looking at $500,000 to $600,000. The last sections we had, we sold eight in a week or two.
“The last big development is still a time away, at least one to two years, so right now there is nothing large scale for people to buy a section.”
The latest OneRoof Valocity figures show that the town's median value has tipped over $1 million (to $1.06m), up a whopping 28 percent in the past 12 months. Shaw says that buyers with budgets under $700,000 would struggle to find anything but the roughest do-up property, perhaps a 1980s house on a quarter-share cross-lease section.
Shaw and Macky say the bulk of buyers – 60% to 70% – are transplants from Auckland city.
Agents say buyers are looking for houses on large sections, close to town. Photo / Supplied
The town and its prices appeal to first-home buyers as well as retirees and investors.
Shaw says people moving into their next family home are also attracted to older homes in the town that require a makeover, and they’re prepared to put in the work to get the sort of home on a 1000sqm section they’d never afford further south in the city proper.
He says that compared to nearby Matakana, with its designer village and proximity to the beaches, Warkworth is still affordable, and only a 10-minute drive away from beaches too. Where an ordinary home close to the centre of Matakana can go for $1.6 million or more, a similar house in Warkworth would be $1.3m to $1.5m.
Macky and Shaw are bringing to market a new development ,The Villas on Pulham, which will offer 10 freestanding freehold homes with a price guide of $1.4m and upwards.
“It’s really important we get the design right,” says Macky.
“People want value for money and the village lifestyle, knowing your neighbours and the kids walking to school.
“For that they’ll put up with the commute [to Auckland] because they’ll get into the market for a nice price and have a nice lifestyle for the family.”
He adds that the growing work opportunities in the town, including around Mahurangi College, new big box stores, improved public transport and the opening of the Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway link by the Queen’s Birthday in 2022 will improve travel times and lure citysiders to the country town. Auckland Council plans for the town as a major growth hub project that Warkworth will have a population of 25,000 by 2030.
