Some suburbs saw an increase in value over $500,000
Despite the COVID-19 lockdowns, New Zealand’s residential property market has remained resilient – with all major centres achieving significant price gains and some property values in the suburbs exceeding $500,000, according to CoreLogic’s latest quarterly interactive Mapping the Market Report.
In the 12 months to the end of August 2021, 771 of 983 suburbs in New Zealand had seen median value increases of $100,000 or more in the past year, while only 24 saw increases of less than $50,000.
Across the entire country, only 150 suburbs have a median value less than $500,000 (61 in the North Island and 89 in the South), almost half the number of 12 months ago.
CoreLogic NZ chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said the interactive map provided a unique visual insight into how property values varied across suburbs and cities.
“Our refreshed Mapping the Market tool highlights the broad-based and frankly rampant upturn there’s been in property values over the past year or so in almost all suburbs of NZ,” he said.
“The interactive map provides consumers with incredible visibility over the country’s astonishing performance over the past year. The outlook in 2020 was uncertain, but this interactive map confirms just how widespread and significant some of these gains have been.”
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In Auckland, only 37 of 208 suburbs had a median value less than $1 million, while only 10 had a median of less than $800,000.
Herne Bay remained the highest priced suburb in Auckland and across New Zealand, with a median property value of $3.25million. Meanwhile, Ponsonby was the country’s top performer with a gain of $597,550 for the year.
In Hamilton, all suburbs saw a median value increase of at least 14%, with Harrowfield dominating the $1 million-plus suburbs in the main centre as its median value hit $1,068,500 at the end of August 2021. Meanwhile, Bader was considered the cheapest suburb in Hamilton at $580,550.
In Tauranga, the number of $1million-plus suburbs increased from three in June to eight by the end of August, with Mount Maunganui achieving the highest median at $1.33million. Meanwhile, Dunedin’s first $1 million-plus suburbs were Maori Hill and East Taieri, with both median values increasing to $1.02 million.
“Overall, this latest refresh of Mapping the Market shows low mortgage rates and tight listings have driven up New Zealand’s property values across the board, and the dollar gains highlight the affordability challenges for first-home buyers and those looking to trade up,” Davidson said.
CoreLogic economists expect the market to experience a short-term bounce as alert levels ease. However, its 2022 outlook is for the pace of property value growth to slow as tighter lending rules bite and mortgage rates rise.
