With a waterfront home selling under the hammer for $6.2 million this week and just seven properties currently on the market, the Auckland central suburb of Westmere is running hot.
Westmere's average property value is close to hitting the $3m mark, jumping 23.2% ($329,000) since December last year, with value growth over the last three months holding steady at 5.9%.
While value growth in the waterfront suburb for the quarter is tracking below the overall Auckland figure of 7.3% and the 7.2% seen in adjoining Herne Bay (where the average property value is now $4.065m) and St Marys Bay ($3.251m), it is still out-performing neighbouring Ponsonby (up 4.3% to $2.717m) and Grey Lynn (up 3.9% to $2.125m).
Bayleys agent Blair Haddow, who sold a striking modern four-bedroom house on 741sqm site on Sunny Brae Crescent at auction this week for $6.2m, said the five bidders were all locals.
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“The Westmere top end is really buoyant, there have been a few sales over $5m. People want places that are all done. They don’t have time to do the work themselves,” Haddow said.
The trickier part of the market now, he added, was the sub-$4m market where buyers were struggling to get finance sorted with banks. He expected new listing to pause now until late January, when people come back from holiday.
Five bidders, all locals, competed for the stylish house on Sunny Brae Crescent, Westmere. Photo / Supplied
Right now, there are only a handful of properties for sale, from an entry-level two-bedroom 1990s townhouse on Oban Road asking for offers around $1.025m to a trio of houses on Richard Street, off Garnet Road, which are going to auction between December 14 and December 20, marketed by Ray White Point Chevalier.
The two and five-bedroom properties have ratings valuations of between $1.185m and $2.55m, but prices are like to reach into the multi-millions.
Another property on Sunny Brae Crescent, a recently renovated four-bedroom bungalow on 412sqm of land, not on the water, is asking $2.99m. It has a CV of $1.7m, but has since been extensively modernised, say the UP Realty agents marketing the property.
And Gary, Vicki and Andrew Wallace, who just two weeks ago sold a modernised waterfront property on Winsomere Avenue for $7.62m, are marketing another property in the suburb, a Guy Tarrant-designed four-bedroom home on Rawene Avenue.
Last month, an award-winning renovated house on the water at Winsomere Crescent, Westmere, sold for $7.62m. Photo / Supplied
Gary Wallace told OneRoof that the vendor, a developer, had met them through their marketing Winsomere Avenue. He had bought the property for $5.075m in October, put in new landscaping and had plans for a lavish pool area, but had now decided to sell.
“It will be interesting to see where the value lies,” said Wallace.
With two sons living in Grey Lynn, he said they were familiar with that side of town, away from their usual Remuera and eastern suburbs patch.
“When you’re working with top-end buyers, we get their brief and do the legwork for them to find them properties. This week, it was one of our buyers who bought a villa at Rose Road [marketed by Bayleys agent Edward Pack] for $4.31m.
“Buyers zigzag between Remuera and the central suburbs like Herne Bay, Westmere, Ponsonby and Grey Lynn depending on where their kids are at for schooling. You can almost set your watch by it.
“People are very specific about where they want to be. Some don’t want certain parts of Grey Lynn, for example, some are a bit more open, even considering Parnell, but the house has to tick all the boxes.”
Ray White’s Lawrence von Sturmer agreed that the boundaries were blurring between the central suburbs on the west of the city.
“When I started selling in Point Chev in 2002, people would say ‘no way I’m going all the way out west’, now they say ‘oh, it’s so central’.
“Ponsonby, Westmere, out to Point Chev it’s all considered inner-city now.
A house on Rawene Avenue, Westmere, is back on the market with plans for pool landscaping, after selling in October for $5.075m. Photo / Supplied
“People coming to Westmere are what I’d call executive families – they like the quiet family feel, it’s got a community, the houses are very similar compared to Point Chev’s mix of apartments, townhouses and big family blocks, or Ponsonby’s busier density.
“It’s just seen as a nice family place, people appreciate that.”
The suburb is also attracting Herne Bay-type money. Last year, the billionaire ZURU Toys owner Anna Mowbray and former All Black Ali Williams paid $24m for a 12-year-old waterfront pad which they have now demolished to replace with a massive six-bedroom 1590sqm home – complete with a helicopter pad which is being objected to by neighbours on the quiet street, just like Herne Bay.
A neighbouring waterfront property that was owned by former Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell and entrepreneur Sharon Hunter also sold last year for $17.68m.
By contrast, an almost original two-bedroom bungalow on Chester Avenue, in Westmere, sold at a Barfoot & Thompson auction last month for $2.635m, well above its $1.625m CV, but pretty much entry level now for a bungalow with good bones in the suburb.
- A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the house on Sunny Brae Crescent had last sold three years ago. The house had not previously been on the market. OneRoof apologises for the error.
