Fifteen suburbs have joined the ranks of Auckland’s magic million-dollar club in the months since lockdown ended.
Data from OneRoof’s latest Property Report shows just over 50 percent of Auckland’s suburbs have a median property value of $1 million or more – and that less than 5 percent of the city has a median property value of $600,000.
Those creeping past the $1 million barrier include Lynfield and New Windsor in the city’s west, Three Kings and Ellerslie in the city’s central belt, and Albany, Birkenhead, Northcross and Torbay on the North Shore.
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And more suburbs are close to joining them, with 36 suburbs with median values of between $900,000 and $999,000 showing growth in the last three months.
A year ago 48 percent of Auckland suburbs had a median value of $1 million or more, and 5 percent had a median value of less than $600,000.
James Wilson, director of valuation at OneRoof’s data partner, Valocity, says increased buying activity by first home buyers post lockdown will have lifted values in these suburbs.
"First home buyers continue to be the biggest buying group, and there was a big jump in new mortgage registrations by first home buyers immediately after lockdown,” he says.
"Many of the Auckland suburbs that have grown in value since the housing market opened for business again have been in the price bracket targeted by first home buyers - $600,000 to $1 million."
The raw figures also showed two suburbs on the northern outskirts of the city had dropped out of the club: Mahurangi East and Shelley Beach, whose median values fell $607,500 and $407,500 respectively.
Incomplete picture
Wilson warns against reading too much into the data for these suburbs, saying sales volumes there are too low to draw any firm conclusions about a downwards trend.
He is similarly cautious about the suburb that saw the biggest increase, Ardmore, near Papakura. Ardmore’s median value moved from $790,000 three months ago to $3.72 million. “Low sales volumes can skew the figures and give an incomplete picture of what’s going on.”
Agents in the Papakura area are also sceptical, saying Ardmore is a small rural and lifestyle area and even one or two sales could skew the figures.
Also, changes in median values reflect what houses have been selling for recently, rather than a measure of the individual value of homes in a suburb.
Whangateau and Wharehine in Rodney are also now million dollar suburbs with Wharehine’s median average now $1.02 million.
However, Harvey’s Warkworth agent, Mark Enticott, says Wharehine might be a million dollar suburb on paper but the area comprises rural and lifestyle properties and has had few sales over the past three months.
“Not a lot has come on the market and most of them are lifestyle blocks or small farms. It’s not a high turnover area.”
Ellerslie Racecourse. The surrounding suburb is onto a winner as well, with the median property value up from $990,000 to $1.65 million.
Over on the east coast, Mahurangi East has fallen from $1.495m to $887,500 but Harvey’s agent Greg Allen-Baines, who works the Rodney area, says the drop there could actually reflect renewed interest by investors.
“Mahurangi East includes Snells Beach, Algies Bay, Scotts Landing and Martins Bay and Sandspit so it’s quite a big area and all those places have varying degrees of houses.”
Some are high value areas and others less so which impacts the average - and values definitely haven’t plummeted, he says.
“If anything prices have remained stable, and stubbornly stable, and investors are now starting to come back into the Snells Beach area which is why a whole lot of the lesser-priced houses are starting to sell so that would drag down your average.”
Lifestyle change
In Redvale, also in Rodney, the average rose $385,000, pushing the suburb into the $2ms.
Allen-Baines says Redvale is a big equestrian area and has high value lifestyle blocks.
He believes the data could be reflecting people looking to lifestyle blocks because of Covid-19 and says 85 per cent of inquiries come from Auckland.
“A good number, probably about 25 per cent of the people that come from the central Auckland area are coming from apartments which is a direct result of lockdown – they don’t want to ever get caught there again. That’s a significant number of people.”
This is a youthful market looking for a safer place to bring up their children, he says, with recent inquiries coming from people in apartments in Freemans Bay and Ponsonby.
Expats are also inquiring about Rodney and looking at lifestyle blocks in Papakura, Waiuku and Pukekohe, he says.
Auckland features other $2m suburbs with Herne Bay the most expensive of all suburbs, up marginally from $2.47m to $2.56m, and nearby Saint Marys Bay is up from $2.24m to $2.32.
Rural Coatesville is the third most expensive though it featured a slight fall from $2.385m to $2.315m.
Whitford, out towards Clevedon, saw a $182,500 increase from $2.18m to $2.365m.
The trendy suburbs of Orakei, Ponsonby and Devonport all rose by between $100,000 to $135,000.
The cheapest place to live in Auckland is tiny Anawhata, near Piha, where the average was steady at $430,000, followed by apartment-heavy Auckland central which rose from $455,000 to $490,000.
Under $600,000 suburbs included Clendon Park, which increased from $540,000 to $565,000, Manukau, which was steady at $515,000, and Wellsford to the north which rose by $10,000 to $595,000.
Suburbs where the median was $600,000 to $700,000 included Eden Terrace, Pukekohe, Waiuku, Clover Park and Weymouth.
Agents have reported the post-lockdown first home buyer market in these areas is strong because of the record low interest rates and removal of the LVR restrictions.
