Bach hot spots
SALES IN NZ’S COASTAL TOWNS AND SUBURBS
The OneRoof-Valocity analysis looked at the percentage of dwellings owned by multi-homeowners and single property owners in 251 beach and costal locations around New Zealand. The multihomeowner figure is an indication of how many properties in each location are used as holiday homes. The map shows the 90 locations where the share of dwellings owned by multi-homeowners was more than 50%. The darker the shading on the map higher the percentage of multi-homeowners.
The locations with the highest share of dwellings owned by multihomeowners are: Te Araroa, Gisborne (83%); Taharoa, in Waikato (82%); Tokomaru Bay, Gisborne (78%); Okura Bush, Auckland (74%); and Te Kaha, Bay of Plenty (73%).
Twelve locations scattered around the fringes of Auckland’s urban centres have more than 50% of dwellings owned by multihomeowners, which suggests Aucklanders still like to be within driving distance of their baches.
The analysis also found:
The median purchase price of a second home in Q1 of this year was $1m or more in 79 locations, and $2m or more in nine. The locations with the highest median purchase price in Q1 were: Okura, Auckland ($5,300,000); Omaha, Auckland ($4,395,000); Tata Beach, Tasman ($3,450,000); Sandspit, Auckland ($3,388,000); and Oneroa,
Waiheke Island ($2,460,000).
Twenty locations had a median purchase price of less than $500,000 for a second home in Q1 2022, with the West Coast accounting for the lion’s share. The cheapest “second” purchases were in: Waipapakauri, Northland ($130,000);
Cobden, West Coast ($191,000);
Patea, Taranaki ($260,000);
Blaketown, West Coast
($275,000); and Gladstone,
West Coast ($295,000).
The analysis also looked at how much property values had changed, both in dollar and percentage terms, in each of the locations in the two years to the end of September to gauge how popular an area was with buyers. The timeframe was chosen because it covered the postCovid property boom and the closure of international borders, anecdotally key driving factors of the second home market. Of the 251 locations analysed, 30 enjoyed value growth of more than 50% in the two-year period, and five, mostly in fringe coastal spots in Dunedin, registered growth of less than 20%.
In 26 locations the average property value jumped more than $500,000 in the two-year period while in 12 locations growth was less than $100,000. The five locations with the biggest price jumps were: Waiheke Island, Auckland (up $1,011,000 to $3,622,000); Tawharanui Peninsula, Auckland (up $920,000 to $2,659,000); Whitford, Auckland (up $893,000 to $3,633,000); Omaha, Auckland (up $761,000 to $2,724,000); and Oneroa, Waiheke Island (up $673,000 to $2,349,000).
Overall, those who bought a second home in the closing months of 2020 got the best bach bargains.
Akaroa it’s got fantastic infrastructure, you can work from home easily enough and then commute into town a couple of days a week - it’s all very doable now.”
But while Aucklanders love Akaroa’s vibe, they haven’t taken over, he says. Mostly buyers are people who live an hour and 10 minutes’ drive away, including farmers from rural Canterbury.
Price-wise the transition might not be so easy either. Mangels says prices had been flat in Akaroa since the Global Financial Crisis but there was a “pretty impressive increase” post-Covid.
Down Dunedin way, people usually head inland to Queenstown Lakes and Wanaka to buy their holiday homes, says ex-All Black Kees Meeuws, from Bayleys. “That’s the big thing different to the rest of the country. If you’re from Otago, Dunedin, Gore and everywhere like that, you head to the lakes, so you’re buying in Wanaka. They all go skiing in the winter and in the summer they are all up there on the lakes so Dunedin is like a deserted town when it comes to Christmas.”
While Dunedin folk go inland, inlanders go to the coast. Rhys Vidgen, from One Agency, lives in Karitane, a small settlement on the east coast about 40 minutes north of Dunedin.
People from Queenstown and Wanaka buy their second homes on the coast because they want to be able to see the sea – and it’s warmer, he says. But even all the way down on the east coast of the South Island, Covid has had an impact. Vidgen says there has been a “reasonable spike” of out of towners looking down country. “We had a lot of people that came down from the North Island, from all over, not necessarily from places like Auckland but from places like Whanganui and Tauranga.”
The Aucklanders especially had “Covid burnout”, he says. “They just went ‘I don’t want to live like this anymore’; so a lot of people did go for change of lifestyles.”
The coast may be a long way for an Aucklander to relocate but Vidgen says if they sell up “they get to stick $500,000 in their back pockets”.
Prices along the coast and the Otago Peninsula depend on the location and the (sometimes minimal) services but there’s not much under $300,000 anymore, and there are also houses on the beach that might fetch $1.7m at Karitane.
But Covid also brought out a lot of nostalgia for what Vidgen calls “old Zealand” with cribs (what South Islanders call baches) in places like Purakanui and Long Beach popular despite limited services.
“There are a lot of properties and communities on the peninsula like that. People collect their water from the roof, they have a big tank.”
Karitane itself, an old fishing village, is more developed with mains water and sewerage, plus there’s a shop and a nice café.
Dunedin buyers like the settlement because it’s only half an hour away, which is far enough to feel like they are out of town but close enough to dash back home if they need to.
The coastline is dotted with little townships and Vidgen says newcomers are welcomed with open arms, even Aucklanders. “They hire old guys to mow their lawns and things like that. They bring revenue into these little towns and the shops love it.”