Deep pockets are needed to buy even entry-level properties in New Zealand’s most expensive suburb.
The average property value in Herne Bay has crossed the $4 million mark but breaking into the wealthy Auckland enclave will still likely set you back well over $2m.
Bayleys agent Blair Haddow recently brought to market a “gorgeous little property in one of the nicest streets in Herne Bay”.
The two-bedroom cottage on Sentinel Road, formerly a schoolhouse, sold under the hammer this week for $2.8m after receiving a pre-auction offer for the same amount.
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The 81sqm house, which sits on 361sqm of land that can’t developed, had a 2017 CV of $2.025m and last changed hands in 2016 for $1.6m.
Haddow told OneRoof last week that he expected the property to fetch upwards of $2.4m, saying that was absolutely entry-level for Herne Bay.
A buyer might be able to pick up an apartment for under $2m, but those were hard to come by.
“You get occasional little brick and tile units but even they are $1.1m, $1.2 m for a little one bedroom. To get a house that’s on the northern slopes that's not $4m-$6m is rare.”
Asked how often entry-level homes come onto the market in Herne Bay, Haddow said that out of the 400 houses he has sold, the schoolhouse was the first listing he had that fell into that category.
“So not very often. You wouldn't want to be waiting because the ratio is not terribly good, is it?”
A family home on Herne Bay’s Clifton Road sold in April this year for $2.75m. Photo / Supplied
Gower Buchanan, director of Ray White Ponsonby, which covers Auckland’s inner-west suburbs, including Herne Bay, said that most of the entry-level properties go to downsizers or families looking for something low maintenance.
Earlier this year two of his agents sold a four-bedroom cross lease villa on Clifton Road for $2.75m.
Freehold entry-level was “over $2m by a country mile”, Buchanan said, with the average sale price of units, apartments and townhouses over the past 12 months over $3m, he said.
There are great 1970s apartments and units at the back end of Jervois Road and on Sentinel and Sarsfield streets, but these are tightly held, he said; Herne Bay is just a tough suburb to break into.
Across town in Remuera, where the average property value jumped to $3m in the last three months, the situation is slightly different in that buyers can still squeeze in for less than $1m.
Terry King, director of Remuera Real Estate Register, said Remuera never started out an exclusive suburb.
It’s different to Herne Bay, he said, because of the wide mix of homes it offers; there can be a very expensive house in an exclusive street with a much cheaper house just a few doors down.
King cites Aldred Road as an example. A house there sold recently for $15.5m while a neighbouring bungalow (albeit it with a pool) sold for $2.82m.
A bungalow with a pool on Aldred Road, in Remuera, Auckland, sold for $2.82m. Photo / Supplied
”With one you get an acre of land and a world class house that could be anywhere - it could be somewhere in America, it could be somewhere in England.
“It has a tennis court, swimming pool, and it's all totally private. The other is a good family home which the last generation would be happy to live in.
“It’s like that all through Remuera. In Arney Road or Arney Crescent you can buy a property for less than $3m and at the same time you can buy house for $13.5m, which has also happened in the last 12 months.”
Buyers are just as excited whether they are buying an entry level property or the most expensive property, but people with a $15m budget don’t look at the $3m homes and people with $3m don’t look at the $15m ones, King said.
While the grammar zone plays into why people buy in Remuera, there are also good primary schools and that living there is more about family whatever the budget – and it is possible to get in for less than $1m, he says, saying a two bedroom unit with a sea view at 4/5 Orakei Road sold for $735,000.
“It’s a perfect single person’s property, and has all the benefits you would have if you were living in Victoria Ave with a $12m house. That’s the thing: the price isn’t dictated by exactly where it is, it’s by what is there.”
