Porirua galloping to $1m mark for houses
Porirua’s mayor says the word ‘‘affordable’’ no longer has any meaning when it comes to buying a house – as the city gallops towards a region-topping milliondollar median price.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) figures from August show median property prices for Porirua, north of Wellington, have spiked by 49 per cent since 2017.
This is about double the rate for Wellington City, and higher than Lower Hutt and the red-hot Ka¯piti Coast. It smashes Auckland, Christchurch and the overall national figure.
It comes as Porirua mayor Anita Baker warned she would hate to see Porirua ‘‘go like Auckland’’ when it comes to buying a house. Baker said the likely culprit, aside from New Zealanders returning home, was low interest rates.
‘‘So people can borrow more... the houses in the east – they’re just selling for so much, they’re selling way above what they would normally sell for. And people are paying it, with the low interest rates.’’
Figures released by CoreLogic show Porirua now has a milliondollar median-priced suburb in Aotea; the likes of Cannons Creek and Waitangirua had lower medians but showed rapid percentage increases.
The increases meant Porirua’s median house price, $785,000, was closing in onWellington City’s $820,000.
If the same percentage increase holds, Porirua’s median value would be about $1.2m, and Wellington’s about $1m, by August, 2023.
Baker said the prices meant the word ‘‘affordable’’ no longer had anymeaning when it came to housing.
‘‘What is affordable? You can’t use the word affordable any more,’’ Baker said.
Tommy’s Real Estate manager Euon Murrell said the Porirua market ‘‘has gone nuts’’.
‘‘In eastern Porirua – I’ve been around an awful long time – we were selling houses in that part of the world for $26,000. We’re now selling them for $650,000 and that’s for basically an ex-state house.’’
He said an open home last week at a two-bedroom house in Titahi Bay drew more than 100 people, and another 88 thisweek. ‘‘To be honest, God knows what that’s going to sell for.’’
Murrell said people had previously thought the market was going to crash ‘‘and all this sort of crap’’. ‘‘They’ve always been wrong. So who knows where it’s going to stop, to be honest.’’
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said as Wellington City became more expensive, buyers began looking further afield.
Increased demand pushed up prices, and owners – recognising this – were putting money into their current property, rather than moving.
‘‘Where there may have been around 200 to 300 listings at any given time three years ago, currently there seems to be closer to 85 at any given time,’’ Norwell said.
Auckland University senior lecturer in property Dr Michael Rehm said the Reserve Bank, banks in general and the Government had put out a ‘‘clear signal’.
‘‘They have no interest whatsoever in allowing the property market to crack, and the bubble that does exist to pop.’’
The difficulty in slowing the market without ‘‘all of the wheels falling off’’ was frightening for politicians, banks and policymakers.
REINZ figures show Porirua had a 49 per cent increase in median price from August, 2017, up from $525,000 to $782,000.
In the same period Wellington City rose by 26 per cent to $820,000; Lower Hutt by 41 per cent to $670,000; Ka¯piti Coast by about 38 per cent to $698,000. The national increase was about 27 per cent to $675,000.