Herne Bay: house values fell a median $100,000 in three months. Photo / supplied
Herne Bay: house values fell a median $100,000 in three months. Photo / supplied
Houses in seven Auckland suburbs with $2 million-plus values took a $100,000 hit in the latest quarter, new data out today shows.
CoreLogic said values throughout most city and island areas had dropped lately, with the "housing market downturn in full swing".
But some areas are plunging faster than othersin the quarter to September.
The country's highest-end housing suburb Herne Bay, upmarket Ōrākei, Waiheke Island's most popular Oneroa, Onetangi and Palm Beach, northern seaside area Omaha in Rodney, the eastern area of Shamrock Park near Howick suffered the biggest valuation drops out of 201 suburbs measured.
Data business Valocity said Herne Bay had for some years been our most expensive suburb, with its average property value around $4.1m.
On September 1, the Herald reported The Financial Times asking if the New Zealand housing market is the canary in the coal mine - or in our case, the Kiwi down the pit. A new video says economists globally are watching what happens to our residential values because we could be leading the way in terms of a massive adjustment in valuations. The video was headlined "NZ house market: warning to the world?"
CoreLogic said today Herne Bay values were down 2.8 per cent in the quarter, Oneroa down 4.8 per cent, Onetangi down 5.7 per cent, Palm Beach down 5.3 per cent, Ōrākei down 4 per cent and Omaha down 7.4 per cent. Shamrock Park values fell 5.4 per cent.
Kelvin Davidson, chief property economist, said the latest figures showed how the downturn had accelerated.
"The falls over the past three months topped $100,000 in seven Auckland suburbs, all of them upper-end areas with median value at least $2m," he said.
Oneroa on Waiheke: Two other island areas also suffered $100,000+ valuation drops. Photo / Supplied
Those seven are not alone. In the last three months, 97 per cent or 194 Auckland suburbs had property value drops and throughout New Zealand, values dropped in more than 80 per cent of New Zealand suburbs.
On Auckland, Davidson said: "Almost 180 [suburbs] saw falls of at least 1 per cent and in 14 suburbs, the drops were 5 per cent or more." Glen Eden, Papatoetoe, Henderson and Panmure were cited as having drops of that magnitude.
CoreLogic's Mapping the Market online tool showed the North Shore's Campbell's Bay was an outlier with value increases of 6.5 per cent. Values in South Auckland's Huntington Park, partly bounded by Ti Rakau Drive, also rose by 2.1 per cent and in South Auckland's Opaheke values rose 1.3 per cent in the quarter.
"We've seen signs of weakness gathering pace this year as the lagged impact of rate rises, inflation and other economic influences catches up with the market," Davidson said.
"The winter momentum was most certainly downwards across the country, with the main centres hit hardest. The direction the cycle has been moving in shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone."
In the past three months, 29 out of 34 Hamilton suburbs had value drops and of the five with increases, only Deanwell and Queenwood registered a rise of more than 1 per cent. The largest falls were seen in Grandview Heights -4.8 per cent, Huntington -3.6 per cent, and Fitzroy -3.2 per cent, CoreLogic said.
Tauranga values fell across the board from a 1.8 per cent decline in Tauranga south to a 5.3 per cent drop in Hairini. The city still has eight $1m-plus suburbs, down from 10 in the previous quarter. Papamoa and Maungatapu no longer have $1m+ values.
Mount Maunganui is the most expensive suburb at $1.48m median. The fall during the past three months amounted to more than $56,000 there.
The wider Wellington area had value falls and Davidson named Wellington City, Porirua, Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt as included. Falls of at least 7 per cent in the past three months were recorded in Ranui, Naenae, Wallaceville, Rongotai and Taita. Seatoun remains the most expensive area with a median value of $1.99m, down 2.9 per cent from June's level.
In Christchurch, 76 out of 83 suburbs had valuation declines and in Kennedys Bush, Bromley, and Wigram those were of around 4 per cent.
All Dunedin suburbs had values drops in the three months to September, ranging from -1.1 per cent in Glenleith to -8.2 per cent in Shiel Hill. Māori Hill and East Taieri still have median values of $1m or more, but both have seen values fall since June.
The Real Estate Institute said this week house prices dropped $10,000 in the last month, equivalent to around $322 a day.
That's making it easier on buyers, who are now under less pressure and able to take their time. The national median fell from $810,000 in July to $800,000 last month and national sales volumes dropped 18 per cent from 5983 August sales a year ago to 4891 last month.
Auckland's median of $1.2m a year ago dropped 8.3 per cent to $1.1m and it now takes 48 days to sell a place in the city which is 16 days more than it took a year ago, REINZ said on Tuesday.
