The million-dollar suburb
Scarborough’s average home value has now hit seven figures, but the fastest rising suburbs are Linwood, Richmond, Somerfield, Woolston and Phillipstown. LIZ McDONALD reports.
Christchurch has a milliondollar suburb but the hottest home buying action is happening in the city’s cheaper inner suburbs.
New suburb-by-suburb figures from valuation agency Quotable Value (QV) show Scarborough is the city’s priciest neighbourhood with an average home value of just over $1.1 million.
Big prices don’t always mean fast-rising prices though. The city’s biggest jumps in values in the past year were in the longestablished neighbourhoods of Linwood, Richmond, Somerfield, Woolston and Phillipstown.
Linwood leads the list with a 7 per cent rise in values in the year to August 1, followed by Richmond with 6 per cent, while the other three had increases of over 5 per cent.
Damien Kennedy, Christchurch valuer for QV, said a ‘‘really good climate for first-home buyers’’ was driving the price growth in inner suburbs.
Those areas were becoming increasingly popular because they offered first-time buyers ‘‘affordable entry into the market’’ near the city centre, he said.
With rents high, interest rates low and KiwiSaver providing deposit money, buying had become more attractive, Kennedy said.
‘‘Even though rents have come back a bit, it is often cheaper to buy a home in an affordable area of the city than to rent.’’
Zoning density rules mean the inner suburbs offer plenty of units on smaller pieces of land.
Not all the city’s suburbs registered price growth in the past year.
Average values fell by 6.3 per cent in Lyttelton and by 0.9 per cent in Cashmere. Kennedy attributed the drops to the number of as-is-where-is home sales skewing price data, and said other homes in both suburbs were gaining in value.
Values were largely unchanged in the past year in Harewood, Burnside, Aranui, Redcliffs, Belfast, Wainoni, Northwood, Papanui and Mt Pleasant.
Scarborough, a north-facing hillside with sea views which is often considered the city’s real estate dress circle, has long attracted top-dollar pricetags.
It is followed on the pricey list by Fendalton, which is also approaching the million-dollar mark with an average value of $983,650. Next come Merivale, and Strowan, both near Fendalton in the inner north-west, and then waterfront Redcliffs.
Kennedy noted buyers were less concerned than before about land having a TC3 zoning – indicating vulnerability to quake damage – but were looking for properly repaired homes.
The best bargains can be found on the east side of the city. The cheapest homes are in Aranui (average value $257,050), followed by Phillipstown ($2751,400), and then Waltham, Wainoni, Linwood, and Bromley (all in the $300,000 to $320,000 bracket).
Outside of Christchurch, the biggest rises in Canterbury values have been in Parkside in Timaru and in the town of Twizel.
Ashburton’s hottest neighbourhood is Hampstead, while in Selwyn district it is Leeston.
Oxford had the biggest growth in values in Waimakariri district.
Compared against the previous housing market peak in 2007, home values in Canterbury have risen most in the last eight years in Leeston, and in the Christchurch western suburbs Hornby, Hei Hei and SockburnWigram.
Those areas have all have been in demand since the earthquakes, as red-zoners and other buyers have pushed west and out of the city.