Elite homes drive rise of $2m suburbs

Coastal views, popular school zones, and proximity to the city reasons for growth in multi-million dollar neighbourhoods.

The Supercity’s $2m suburb club has doubled with Remuera and Stanley Point joining Herne Bay and St Marys Bay as the most expensive places to buy a home.

New figures to be released tomorrow will show that despite a lull in Auckland’s soaring property market, the trajectory remains the same.

Herne Bay remains the priciest suburb with the median value an eye-watering $2,468,000. Stanley Point has now hit $2,019,950 and Remuera $2,019,550.

QV national spokeswoman Andrea Rush said the suburbs were home to a number of larger, architect-designed and historic houses on sites with large gardens and trees and harbour views — key factors driving up prices.

The next suburb expected to tick over the $2m mark is Epsom, show the figures in the QV quarterly Property Report.

And one expert believes it is only a matter of time before New Zealand gains its first $3m suburb.

The figures also reveal the once humble Kiwi bach could soon be little more than a relic as yet another popular Auckland beach-side suburb ticks over the $1m mark.

Homes in West Auckland surf spot Piha, which has a permanent population of about 600, now have a median value of more $1,005,750.

It joins the likes of Onetangi, Oneroa and Omaha at the top end of the property ladder where growth is forcing bach ownership to become an unaffordable dream.

“Everywhere you go in the country, anywhere down the east coast, west coast, where there’s good water views the price goes up.

The size of the SuperCity’s $2 million suburb club has doubled in the last three months with Remuera and Stanley Point joining Herne Bay and St Mary’s Bay as the most expensive places to buy a flash new pad.

The priciest suburb continues to be Herne Bay, the first in the country to break the $2m mark. At the end of January it had a QV estimated median value of $2,468,000. The figure for nearby St Mary’s Bay was $2,271,550.

Ever since the city got its first $2m suburb two years ago, prices have continued to grow with St Mary’s Bay joining Herne Bay late last year.

This year two more have joined the exclusive club with Stanley Point — the small North Shore suburb west of Devonport — hitting $2,019,950 and Remuera $2,019,550 at the end of January.

QV national spokeswoman Andrea Rush said the suburbs were home to a number of larger, architectdesigned and historic houses on sites with mature gardens and harbour views — key factors driving up prices.

“They are also in popular school zones and for all these reasons are deemed some of Auckland’s most prestigious suburbs, making them desirable locations to live.”

The next suburb expected to tick over the $2m mark was Epsom, with a median value of $1.87m — a suburb that’s in the desirable grammar zone area, has access to public transport, is near the central city and has access to Cornwall Park.

These figures in the QV quarterly Property Report published tomorrow showed despite the high price tag of houses in these suburbs, it’s not deterring growth.

Of the top 10 Auckland suburbs the majority experienced a rise in value. The largest was Mission Bay which grew by $75,036 (4.4 per cent) in the last December quarter.

None dipped below the $1.5m mark. The cheapest of the bunch was the waterfront suburb of Kohimaramara, which had a median value of $1.74m in December, up $71,972 in the quarter.

However the report also shows that outside of the more expensive suburbs, a majority of areas around the south, west and north experienced negative growth.

According to the figures, compiled from CoreLogic data, 22 suburbs have a median value of more than $1.5m.

First National chief executive Bob Brereton said the coastal view and the proximity to the city were key reasons prices were high.

“Everywhere you go in the country, anywhere down the east coast, west coast, where there’s good water views the price goes up.”

While Brereton said sales volumes weren’t as high at they had been, a complete correction of the market was unlikely.

“I suspect we will see an increase, a lift in sales volumes, but no real correction in cost.”

Brereton said given the way Herne Bay had grown in value in the past few months alone he didn’t expect a $3m suburb was completely out of the question. “It’s going to come.” Rush said if the rate of growth in the suburb continued at the rates it had last year [17.5 per cent] it would have a median value above $3m by 2018.