Highway plan pumps up sales
As the regions play catch-up in the property boom, a small Tararua town is the unlikely star of its red-hot local market.
Woodville’s proximity to the planned Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatu¯ Tararua Highway, which is a few years from completion, has speculators snapping up real estate in anticipation.
Nigel Nicholson wanted to capitalise on Woodville’s rising market while also providing housing for workers who will be engaged in building the new cross-Ruahine Range highway.
‘‘We bought the property with a five-year plan and, by then, hopefully the road will be coming through and we’re speculating that property is going to boom again.’’
Predictions are that Woodville could become a satellite suburb of Palmerston North, similar to what Ashhurst is now.
‘‘They reckon the travel time might be 17 minutes to Palmy.’’
The average house value in Tararua for January 2019 was $225,111 – 22.4 per cent more than it was a year ago.
Woodville-based real estate agent Jude Challies, of Property Brokers, said it was the most buoyant market she had seen in 19 years of brokering in the town.
‘‘The word around town is we need to buy before they start [the road], because the feeling is once they start building the highway, the prices will increase again. All the buyers are coming from the Manawatu¯ to try and get across before that happens,’’ she said.
Tararua Mayor Tracy Collis said property sales had ramped up in the last year and builders in the region were very busy.
‘‘We’ve always had affordable housing based on supply and demand. We’re seeing a variance in the Woodville area as people are anticipating that new road and seeing that potential there.’’
Pahiatua to the south is also riding the wave created by affordable housing relatively close to the city.
Pahiatua real estate agent John Arends, of Property Brokers, said housing was $100,000 to $150,000 cheaper than similar properties over the hills in Palmerston North.
‘‘We do have Aucklanders coming directly to Pahiatua but a lot of it is a ripple effect, where the people from the big centres are buying in Hamilton, Napier and Palmerston North and then the Palmerston North people are deciding that Pahiatua is within commuting distance.’’
He said $300,000 to 350,000 could buy a modern three to fourbedroom house with an en suite on a big section in Pahiatua.
Ellie Bradley, 24, and her partner Ben Charteris were students in Palmerston North when they bought a house in Pahiatua for $140,000 in October 2017.
‘‘At the time, the house prices here were so much cheaper than anywhere else and the mortgage ended up being cheaper than the rent we were paying in a horrible little hovel,’’ Bradley said.
Their mortgage repayments were about $140 a week.
‘‘It’s so much more affordable than rent in Wellington or something where you’re paying several hundred dollars for a single room.’’