Hammer comes down on pricey properties
Northland’s median house price leaps as auctions the new thing
Imran Ali
Asprawling home overlooking the sea could fetch the highest price ever for a residential property in Northland, where the median house rose nearly 27 per cent in the past one year alone.
Figures from Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) show Northland reached a record median house price in March of $710,000 – up 26.8 per cent yearon-year – from $560,000 in March last year.
Properties sold for more than $1 million increased from 5.6 per cent to 17 per cent, as well as a slight uplift in investor activity, particularly before loan-to-value restrictions were reintroduced this month.
Auction has become a popular method of sale in Northland as vendors look to make the most of a popular market, with 27.7 per cent of all sales or 70 properties in March sold by auction, up from 4.7 per cent at the same time last year.
The median house price in Kaipara now sits at $730,500, Whanga¯rei $723,000, and the Far North $625,000.
Semi-retired couple Manfeld and Jutta Hirsch are selling Matariki House, a lifestyle property perched up a hill at Langs Beach, with views of the Hen and Chick Islands, Mokohinau Islands, Poor Knights, and Great Barrier Island.
Built to their specifications 15 years ago, the property is surrounded by four hectares of bush and landscaped grounds and features marble flooring throughout the earthquake-proof house, and burglarproof windows and doors.
Most of the materials in the house have been sourced from Europe and the couple reckons the property would last between 500 and 600 years.
Tenders close on May 13 and they expect the house to fetch “several million dollars”.
The most expensive property sold in Northland last year went for $6.2m in Opito Bay in Kerikeri.
“This is the place where heaven and earth meet. It’s like European houses that last hundreds of years. Everything in this house is the best you can get. There are no shortcuts,” Manfeld Hirsch said.
“This property has one of the nicest views in Northland. You have privacy, private driveway, there are only four home owners, and it’s close to everything. When you are here, you are away from everything but in five minutes, you can get to Langs Beach.”
The Hirschs worked as landscapers, specialising in Japanese gardens, in their native Germany and their love for nature is reflected in the more than 2.8 hectares of natives they’ve planted across their sprawling property.
“We’ve come to a certain age now when we need to downsize, but we’ll buy another one in Whanga¯rei, where we’ve always lived since leaving Germany. We’d prefer something similar with plenty of bush,” he said.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan isn’t surprised at the record median house price in Northland in just one year, given the fact some regions, including Northland, have seen rapid escalation of house prices since the lockdown.
Some of this uplift could be attributed to investors buying before loan-to-value restrictions are reintroduced this month, he said.
The Reserve Bank has warned that the overheated housing market is at growing risk of a correction and it will reintroduce loan-to-value ratio (LVR) rules at the tougher end of expectations.
The rules mean most investors will be required to have a 30 per cent deposit this month, rising to 40 per cent from May. Most other owner-occupier buyers will require a one-fifth deposit.
Vaughan said a lot of homes were being sold at auction, where buyers competed, meaning sellers usually got the highest prices people were prepared to pay.
It was also a good gauge about the demand for properties, he said.
“In Northland, there’s pressure from outside buyers who are pushing the price bracket for beach/bach type properties for example, especially in areas like Mangawhai, post Covid lockdown.”
The top sale for Northland in March was $4.7m in Kerikeri.
In March last year, 214 houses were sold in Northland but that number jumped to 253 in March this year.
REINZ says Northland has had the highest days to sell of any region at 35 days, albeit down from 52 days at the same time last year – the lowest for the month of March since records began.
There were 28 weeks of inventory in March 2021 which is 12 weeks less than the same time last year.