Tu¯rangi offers cheaper housing
For Kiwis hoping for their own idyllic mountain retreat or lake house, Tu¯rangi is one of the options less touched by New Zealand’s tourism boom.
It is ranked sixth on New Zealand’s 10 cheapest regional suburbs, despite its location as a gateway to the Tongariro National Park and Lake Taupo¯.
Its median price of $223,100 looks affordable against the medians of $1.13m and $1.14m for Queenstown and Wanaka respectively, according to the latest quarterly QV Property report.
Taupo¯’s median price was $427,000 and Omori at the southern end of Lake Taupo¯, was also cheaper than expected at $406,800.
And while many Auckland suburbs have more than doubled in value since 2007’s last market peak, prices have risen 26.3 per cent in Taupo¯.
In Omori, meanwhile, prices fell 5.1 per cent, making it one of just three places in the country where values have dropped since 2007.
CoreLogic NZ head of research Nick Goodall puts the sluggish growth down to a heavy reliance on tourism and lack of diversified economies.
Westerman Cozens Realty codirector in Tu¯rangi, Zane Cozens, said investors had recently been busy in Omori and Tu¯rangi (where QV says median values have dropped 3.2 per cent since 2007).
“Entry level now is probably $300,000, which on national terms might not seem a lot, but that is a big shift from where it was 18 months ago,” he said. Mr Cozens said prices had risen on the back of a booming tourism industry that was leading investors to consider buying holiday homes that they also had the option of letting out on services like Airbnb.
“That market has definitely lifted,” he said.
Century 21 Premier (Tu¯rangi) owner Wai Johnson says house prices remain strong in and around Tu¯rangi as people wake up to the fact that they can buy a mountain house, lake bach or fishing cottage in the Central North Island for significantly less than other holiday destinations.
In the last quarter alone Tu¯rangi’s median house value increased by 3.9 per cent — one of the largest quarterly increases nationwide, and in the year to March 31, it increased by 14.6 per cent.
“According to QV, Tu¯rangi’s median house value rose to $223,100 in the last quarter. We’ve still got houses for sale beneath that, but I suppose the big difference in the past 18 months is that more and more properties are now selling above that,” she says.
Ms Johnson says with Taupo¯ house prices rising in recent years, many looking for a holiday house near Lake Taupo¯ are now considering Tu¯rangi and the lifestyle it offers.
She says Tu¯rangi has also benefited from the tourism boom with the area fast becoming a destination, with plenty of hospitality, accommodation and adventure tourism businesses based there and its central location has also been key to its revival, with the ongoing Waikato Expressway improvements and Transmission Gully now under construction only going to make it closer to Auckland and Wellington.
Elsewhere, Napier City was the pick of the North Island regions over the past three months with 3.4 per cent growth to hit a median home value of $500,347, according to the latest QV figures.
Whanganui District was the next biggest gain with 2.5 per cent growth to reach a median value of $244,293, followed by Rotorua District with 2.2 per cent growth to $426,458. Hastings and New Plymouth Districts with 1.3 per cent growth followed.
Nelson, Marlborough, Dunedin and Invercargill were the standouts in the South Island.